Supreme Court Will Consider Whether Police Need Warrants to Search Cellphones

[Common]

The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a pair of cases about whether the police need a warrant to search the cellphones of people they arrest, presenting a major test of the meaning of the Fourth Amendment in the digital age.The court has long allowed warrantless searches in connection with arrests, saying they are justified by the need to find weapons and to prevent the destruction of evidence. The question for the justices in the new cases is whether the potentially vast amounts of data held on smartphones warrant a different approach under the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/us/supreme-court-to-consider-limits-of-cellphone-searches.html?ref=politics

[patrickt]

"Computerworld - Laptop computers and other digital devices carried into the U.S. may be seized from travelers without a warrant and sent to a secondary site for forensic inspection, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled last week.The ruling is the second in less than a year that allows the U.S. government to conduct warrantless, offsite searches of digital devices seized at the country's borders.
A federal court in Michigan last May issued a similar ruling (http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177438/Border_searches_of_laptops_may_be_conducted_off_si te_for_cause_court_rules) in a case challenging the constitutionality of the warrantless seizure of a computer at the Detroit Metropolitan Airport. The defendant in a child pornography case also contended that a subsequent search of the device at a secondary computer forensic facility violated the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution."
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215554/U.S._can_conduct_offsite_searches_of_computers_sei zed_at_borders_court_rules?pageNumber=1

The government has already decided that the government can seize laptops, digital cameras, thumb drives, cell phones, and other digital recording devices at the border without cause. Will the court decide arrested people have more rights than innocent travelers. It would be bizarre if they did.

Of course, the current administration sees average Americans as more of a threat than murderers, rapists, and terrorists.

[Peter1469]

Patrick- that is a separate issue. Searches at points of entry are given much more latitude than in general.

[patrickt]

Peter, that remains to be seen but I suspect you're right. I don't consider points of entry to be the issue when dealing with U.S. citizens, though. It's who this government sees as an enemy. Is a U.S. citizen returning to Atlanta from London any more of a threat than a U.S. citizen returning to Atlanta from Chicago?

[Peter1469]

Peter, that remains to be seen but I suspect you're right. I don't consider points of entry to be the issue when dealing with U.S. citizens, though. It's who this government sees as an enemy. Is a U.S. citizen returning to Atlanta from London any more of a threat than a U.S. citizen returning to Atlanta from Chicago?

I agree. But if you fly into Atlanta fro London, the government can scan your laptop hard drive and SCOTUS says it isn't a 4th Amendment violation. If you fly from Atlanta to Chicago it is.

[donttread]

How could there be any doubt? Yes they need a warrant.



The Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear a pair of cases about whether the police need a warrant to search the cellphones of people they arrest, presenting a major test of the meaning of the Fourth Amendment in the digital age.The court has long allowed warrantless searches in connection with arrests, saying they are justified by the need to find weapons and to prevent the destruction of evidence. The question for the justices in the new cases is whether the potentially vast amounts of data held on smartphones warrant a different approach under the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches.


http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/18/us/supreme-court-to-consider-limits-of-cellphone-searches.html?ref=politics

[patrickt]

How could there be any doubt? Yes they need a warrant.

Not in LibWorld.