Judge vacates search warrant over Privacy Protection Act

Article Abstract:

A Pennsylvania state judge vacated a search warrant that would have allowed a Lebanon County district attorney to seize unaired footage of an interview of a woman involved in a car accident conducted by a television station. The station released the portion of the interview that aired but refused to release the rest of the tape based on the Privacy Protection Act. In the interview, the woman admitted to having smoked marijuana the day before the accident, which killed four children, and admitted to knowing the brakes were bad. She has been charged with homicide, and the district attorney may resubmit a subpoena.

Pennsylvania

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Senate committee votes to expand exemptions to Privacy Protection Act

Article Abstract:

Sen. Orrin Hatch introduced an additional exception to the Privacy Protection Act as part of the Child Pornography Act of 1995, and the Senate Judiciary Committee, which he chairs, passed the bill. Exceptions to the Privacy Protection Act, which limits law enforcement access to press work product, already exist when national security is implicated, when death or harm may result, when destruction of subpoenaed materials is likely and when court orders have been ignored. The new provision would allow seizure when the possessor is believed to have committed a child pornography crime.

Political activity, Child pornography, United States. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary

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'Reasonable belief' enough to defeat newsroom act: warrants allowed without need to address Privacy Protection Act, court rules

Article Abstract:

The US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ruled in Citicasters v. McCaskill that police did not need to enunciate the exception to the Privacy Protection Act that they believed applied to them when applying for a warrant to seize materials held by a press agency. A television station came into possession of a videotape of a crime and only released voluntarily the portion that was aired. The police seized the entire tape. The Court reversed the lower court's decision, which had found that the police must identify which exception to the Privacy Protection Act was applicable.

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