In re Boucher

2:06-mJ-91, 2009 WL 424718) is a federal criminal case in Vermont, which was the first to directly address the question of whether investigators can compel a suspect to reveal their encryption passphrase or password, despite the U.S. Constitution's Fifth Amendment protection against self-incrimination.

In late 2009, Boucher finally gave up his password and investigators found numerous images and videos depicting sexual abuse of children.

[1] On 17 December 2006, the laptop computer of defendant Sebastien D. Boucher (born in 1977)[2][3] was inspected when he crossed the border from Canada into the United States at Derby Line, Vermont.

A grand jury then subpoenaed the defendant to provide the password to the encryption key protecting the data.

[7] On February 19, 2009, Judge Sessions reversed the magistrate's ruling and directed Boucher "to provide an unencrypted version of the Z drive viewed by the ICE agent."

The ICE agent viewed the contents of some of the Z drive's files, and ascertained that they may consist of images or videos of child pornography.