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Sovereign immunity is a pretty well settled concept at the Federal level (especially with regard to law enforcement and foreign relations), with a few exceptions.

As a result, even if all of the plaintiff's claims were factually true as alleged--the posture assumed in pre-trial motions--I believe the agents acting in their official capacities would likely be found to have immunity.

There is the possibility of a Section 1983 claim against the officials if 4th amendment rights were found to be violated (which the Court has allowed), "[b]ut government officials performing discretionary functions generally are granted a qualified immunity and are 'shielded from liability for civil damages insofar as their conduct does not violate clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known.' Harlow v. Fitzgerald, 457 U.S. 800, 818, 102 S.Ct. 2727, 73 L.Ed.2d 396 (1982). Wilson v. Layne 526 U.S. 603, 609, 119 S.Ct. 1692, 1696 (U.S.Md.,1999)." [1]

[1] http://www.robertslaw.org/4thamend.htm



Even if the "agents" won't go to prison, the goal is to get back those files as soon as possible, because those are withheld without good reason.


Aren't there laws concerning the return of seized property? Or are those inapplicable here? If they had seized a storage company, would the customers not have been able to get their stuff out of the storage sheds?


This case is funny.

Pirates demanding the return of intellectual property.


The 'pirates' are against copyright infringement, where after the act the information is copied and no one is denied a copy.

This is something else, where after the fact no one has a copy, information is less free than before and someone has been deprived.


That irony cuts the other way, though, doesn't it?

It would be odd if those laws were found inapplicable because they were only concerned with real property.


> the agents acting in their official capacities would likely be found to have immunity

You appear to be confusing the general concept of sovereign immunity with the much narrower concept of qualified immunity, which generally protects government employees from being sued personally for actions performed in their official capacities.

Qualified immunity doesn't apply to the government, to its agencies, nor to, for example, the Attorney General in his official capacity. It applies to real, live, human beings.




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