Orin Kerr comments on a situation discussed in a recent Law.com article on U.S. v. Collins (mentioned here). One of the issues raised by defense counsel concerns the prosecution hanging on to unnecessary and irrelevant computer files on seized computers when the warrants contained clauses saying that materials not needed for prosecution would be deleted or returned within 60 days.
Orin’s position seems to be that any such conditions included in warrants “are not permissible in the first place.” You can read his commentary on The Volokh Conspiracy, but it seems to me if such statements were included in the applications for the warrants, the prosecution should be bound by them. Otherwise, one could argue that the court might never have approved the warrant in the first place as it might seem overly broad. But then, I am not a lawyer and Orin is… 🙂