A Judge John M. Facciola has given the White House until tomorrow to show why they should not be required to copy the contents of all computer hard drives in order to ensure that no more emails are lost.

Judge Facciola rejected as “draconian” a proposal by the Archive that would have forced the White House to quarantine every computer workstation it had. Instead, Facciola proposed the White House make a “forensic copy” of all preservable data on every computer that could have been used by an employee between 2003 and 2005, the period in question.

Observing that even that step is “not without its costs,” Facciola gave the White House until close of business Friday to argue why it should not be required to make such copies.

White House spokesman Scott Stanzel said the White House “fully intends to comply” with the order, which is currently being reviewed.

The semantic difference between “fully intends to comply”, and “intends to fully comply” is noted.