The case concerned a child pornography investigation. Dale Robert Bach, now charged with manufacturing, possessing and transmitting indecent images of children, argued that the retrieval and search of his e-mail account was illegal because it was conducted by a civilian Yahoo! employee without the physical presence of police.
A district court in Minnesota accepted his argument, ruling that the fax warrant violated constitutional provisions regarding unreasonable search and seizure. The court therefore decided that the seized e-mails could not be used as evidence against Bach.
The 8th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that ruling, reasoning that the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizures, does not establish a physical presence requirement and has returned the case to the lower court.