"Smiling Bob" may be creepy and those ads for "natural male enhancement" may be a crock (not that I've conducted any trials), but that doesn't mean federal investigators can go groping through the e-mail of the company that has made both "Bob" and Enzyte semi-famous, a three-judge appeals court in Cincinnati ruled today - at least not without a warrant.
From the Associated Press:
The ruling by a three-judge panel of the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholds a lower court ruling temporarily blocking investigators from additional e-mail searches in the case against Steven Warshak, owner and president of Berkeley Premium Nutraceuticals.
Warshak, whose company markets supplements that include a "natural male enhancement" product called Enzyte, argued that his Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures were violated when the government went after his e-mail records.
Seems as though the Fourth Amendment has been taking a beating as of late, so it's nice to see "overzealous" investigators put in their place.
On the other hand, I can't help but be concerned that we may have missed our best opportunity to wipe that grating grin off of "Smiling Bob."