Hmm…
Simple deduction Watson…
The father owned the house that gave him the right to grant permission. 
If you read the complete article you will see that it isn’t quite that simple as one of the Judges though they shouldn’t have had access to ‘his’ computer, using hacking software to bypass his password.
Outcome: By a 2-1 majority, the appeals court ruled the search was permissible because the father had the authority to consent to the search of the computer in his son's bedroom.
If it was such a simple deduction it really should have been 3-0 unanimous decision.
Whilst the crimes he was charged with are abhorrent, the law seems to have taken a side step to bypass privacy by failing to ask some pertinent questions, like did the father have access to the computer and his sons password, etc.
The father gave permission for the police to search his son's bedroom and any computers in it. Cheatham and Woollen called in a computer forensics expert, who had been waiting outside. He immediately unplugged the computer's hard drive and began browsing the contents using the EnCase forensic software (but did not check in advance to see if the contents were password-protected). Eventually the computer was seized by police.
Yes David I read the entire article and the father (owner of the house) didn’t need the sons permission.
The son wasn’t a renter simply a guest and since it wasn’t a locked room, no privacy rights could be expected.
Since one of the judges was obviously a liberal, ;D you had a 2 to 1 decision.
Appeals to Appellate Court decisions concerning interpretations of amendments to the constitution, the 4th in this case, are generally heard by the Supreme Court. It’ll be interesting to see how they weigh in on the matter of password protected computer files.
It'll be interesting to see how they weigh in on the matter of password protected computer files.That's almost like trying to determine if a crook is less of a crook if he uses a password to encrypts his files. Or, does the use of a password constitute the intent to invoke privacy. ( Interesting )