Fourth Amendment

WI Court of Supreme Court

Case Name: Office of Lawyer Regulation v. Michael Joseph Gasper

Case No.: 2023AP002319-CR

Officials:

Focus: Fourth Amendment

Gasper had been charged with multiple counts of possession of CSAM and child exploitation after Snapchat detected a 16-second video uploaded from his account using PhotoDNA, a hash-based scanning technology that identifies known CSAM. Snapchat reported the video to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), which forwarded it to the Wisconsin Department of Justice and local law enforcement. Government agents viewed the video without a warrant before obtaining a search warrant for Gasper’s devices.

The Supreme Court held that no Fourth Amendment violation occurred because the private search doctrine applied. Snapchat, a private actor, had already conducted a search by scanning and flagging the video as CSAM. Law enforcement did not exceed the scope of that private search by viewing the same single video, because there was “virtual certainty” that the file contained nothing beyond what the private search had already revealed. The Court rejected the argument that a search requires human viewing by the private actor and declined to follow federal cases requiring warrants in similar circumstances.

Because the government’s conduct did not constitute a Fourth Amendment search, suppression was improper.

Decided 01/14/26

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