United States v. Kirschner

United States v. Kirschner, 823 F. Supp. 2d 665 (E.D. Mich. 2010),[1] was a federal criminal case in Michigan. The defendant had previously been indicted by a grand jury under three counts of receipt of child pornography under 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2)(A).[2] The government sought to use a grand jury subpoena post-indictment to acquire additional evidence: the contents of an encrypted file from the defendant's hard drive.

United States v. Kirschner
United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
Full case name	United States of America v. Thomos J. Kirschner
Citations	823 F. Supp. 2d 665 (E.D. Mich. 2010)
Judge sitting	Paul D. Borman
Case holding
Requiring a defendant to divulge the password to an encrypted file in response to a grand jury subpoena would be violate his Fifth Amendment right not to incriminate himself.
Keywords
encryption, self-incrimination

Decision of the United States District Court

On March 30, 2010, Judge Paul D. Borman held that compelling Kirschner to divulge the password to the encrypted file would require "producing specific testimony asserting a fact" in violation of his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

See also

• In re
• Key disclosure law
• United States v. Hubbell, 530 U.S. 27 (2000) [3]
• In re Boucher
• United States v. Fricosu[4]

References

1. United States v. Kirschner, 823 F. Supp. 2d 665 (E.D. Mich. 2010).
2. 18 U.S.C. § 2252A(a)(2)(A).
4. U.S. v. Fricosu

External links

• Text of United States v. Kirschner, 823 F. Supp. 2d 665 (E.D. Mich. 2010) is available from:  Google Scholar  Leagle  FindACase