Warrant to Search Suspect’s Cellphone
In June, the “Supremes” (and I’m not referring to Diana Ross) answered the following question: Is your cell phone more like your house or your pocket possessions? SCOTUS, in a 9-0 unanimous decision, stated that that police must first obtain a warrant to search suspects cellphone signalling they intend to broadly protect Americans’ privacy rights in the digital age. Here is a link to a Wall Street Journal article: Get a Warrant
Writing for the Court, Chief Justice John Roberts stated “modern cell phones, as a category, implicate privacy concerns far beyond those implicated by the search of a cigarette pack, a wallet or a purse,” although he also acknowledged that a cell phone is an essential tool for today’s modern criminal. Further paraphrasing Roberts, he went on to add that cell phones are much different than other objects a suspect may be carrying at the time of an arrest, because of their capacity to store millions of pages of text messages, thousands of pictures, and hundreds of videos that can date back years.
In other words, searching your cell phone is like searching your house. You can’t do it without a warrant unless certain exceptions are present (hot pursuit, exigent circumstances, etc.)
Please consider the following questions this week:
- Has SCOTUS gone too far? With all the information contained on your cell phone in terms of call records, pictures, videos, financial data and meta-data, there can be no doubt that your cell phone could contain valuable evidence to aid law enforcement in building a case. Do we really have a reasonable expectation of privacy in our cell phone? Can it be argued that since a cell phone uses the public airwaves, we shouldn’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy? Or do you applaud SCOTUS for taking a stand on our right to privacy in what is arguably the most important fundamental right an American has? Explain.
- Will this ruling change your personal behavior? Do you scrub your cell phone for personal data? Would you voluntarily consent to a search of your cell phone if you were arrested or questioned by police (removing the need for them to obtain a warrant)?
- Coming as soon as 2015 is technology known as the “Kill Switch.” The Kill Switch will enable a user to disable a smartphone and wipe all the data on it. Won’t this technology create an exigent circumstance obviating the need for a warrant once it is introduced? After all, couldn’t a smart criminal press the Kill Switch before law enforcement gets the warrant? Here is a link to a CNN story on this technology: Kill Switch is Coming.
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