The cellphone and other electronic devices of “Juror X,” whose social-media posts during a high-profile federal case created controversy, will not be subjected to forensic examination, a federal appeals court ruled.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati, Ohio, refused to issue an order allowing a probe of the juror’s devices in the case of  Alexander “P.G.” Sittenfeld, a former Cincinnati city councilman who was convicted of two federal corruption-related charges in July.
However, one of the judges opined that the Sept. 23 ruling goes too far, opining that the decision should have been tailored more narrowly to Sittenfeld’s case. Instead, the 25-page document (pdf) was issued as a “sweeping opinion” affecting cases throughout the four-state region that the court covers: Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Michigan….