Community Corner

Supreme Court: No Cell Phone Searches Without a Warrant

The Supreme Court struck down warrantless searches of cell phones by a 9-0 vote.

By Brian Slupski

Police cannot search a person's cellphone following an arrest unless they have a warrant, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

Chief Justice John Roberts wrote that the right of the police to search an arrested suspect at the scene did not extend to cell phone data, the Chicago Tribune reported.

The decision was based on three cases including one that involved a traffic stop in California. David Riley was arrested on weapons charges and the arresting officer went through the man's phone and found the repeated use of a term associated with a street gang.

At the station a detective went through the phone again and found photos and video in connection with a shooting that had occurred weeks earlier. The man was charged in the shooting and his attorney moved to suppress the evidence that had been gathered via the cell phone.

Roberts noted the tremendous amount of information that can be stored on modern day cell phones and that the "possible intrusion on privacy is not physically limited" when it comes to cell phones.

"The sum of an individual's private life can be reconstructed through a thousand photographs labeled with dates, locations, and descriptions," Roberts wrote. "[T]he same cannot be said of a photograph or two of loved ones tucked into a wallet."

The U.S. government and the state of California cited previous cases in defending the search. Notably, that police can search suspects to ensure their safety and also raised the possibility that evidence on a cell phone could be remotely destroyed. The court did not consider potential evidence destruction to be a likely occurrence.

"Prior to the digital age, people did not typically carry a cache of sensitive personal information with them as they went about their day," Roberts wrote. "Now it is the person who is not carrying a cell phone, with all that it contains, who is the exception."

USA Today noted that this ruling could be a precursor on a range of other issues, notably an examination of the National Security Agency's surveillance methods.

MORE: Is the Government Spying on Your 'Smart Home'?


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