Obama administration asks Supreme Court to allow warrantless cellphone searches

Now this just pertains to those under arrest. But just take a look at what happened to the NSA thanks to one little line in the Patriot Act? The thing is, in modern times cell phones are much more than just phones. So what do you think, should this be allowed or not? Myself, I am inclined to say no. If they feel the need to look, they could just get a warrant with probable cause.

(I)QUESTION PRESENTED
Whether the Fourth Amendment permits the police,
without obtaining a warrant, to review the call log of a
cell phone found on a person
who has been lawfully ar-
rested. .

PDF File - PETITION FOR A WRIT OF CERTIORARI

If the police arrest you, do they need a warrant to rifle through your cellphone? Courts have been split on the question. Last week the Obama administration asked the Supreme Court to resolve the issue and rule that the Fourth Amendment allows warrantless cellphone searches.

In 2007, the police arrested a Massachusetts man who appeared to be selling crack coc aine from his car. The cops seized his cellphone and noticed that it was receiving calls from “My House.” They opened the phone to determine the number for “My House.” That led them to the man’s home, where the police found drugs, cash and guns.

The defendant was convicted, but on appeal he argued that accessing the information on his cellphone without a warrant violated his Fourth Amendment rights. Earlier this year, the First Circuit Court of Appeals accepted the man’s argument, ruling that the police should have gotten a warrant before accessing any information on the man’s phone.

The Obama Administration disagrees. In a petition filed earlier this month asking the Supreme Court to hear the case, the government argues that the First Circuit’s ruling conflicts with the rulings of several other appeals courts, as well as with earlier Supreme Court cases. Those earlier cases have given the police broad discretion to search possessions on the person of an arrested suspect, including notebooks, calendars and pagers. The government contends that a cellphone is no different than any other object a suspect might be carrying.

Oba ma administration asks Supreme Court to allow warrantless cellphone searches

reply to post by elouina

If they feel the need to look, they could just get a warrant with probable cause.

You said it all right there. No reason in the world they can't just do it that way and let a judge decide if they should be allowed to search the phones on a case by case basis.

I swear, these morons just don't give up! Like the energizer bunny, they just keep going and going and going. And with all the other crap still fresh yet? It hasn't even crusted over ffs.

I can see both sides of the argument and i gotta say, i agree that openly accessible information should be able to be used by police without a warrant. If they obtain the electronic device legally, then they should also have access to what is easily accessible as well, just like documents, or writing in a notebook.

On the other hand, anything with a password should be 100% off limits without a warrant. Just like a locked trunk or a safe. If they want in to that they should have to get a warrant that specifically gives them access.

Now the hard part is trusting to police to follow whatever rules are put in to place. They could easily say that the phone was unlocked when they really cracked the password somehow, or used a trick to get around the password that many phones and computers have. Encryption is not that hard on a PC and its only slightly more complicated on a phone, but still not that hard. A decent encryption placed on a cell phone would prevent any access to it without very high level software.

I guess my point it, we cant expect the police and government to turn a blind eye to anything they can easily get their hands on, legal or not. Its up to the individual to keep their information protected from both the officials and from the criminals. Though i suppose that line is a bit blurred these days.

DC

Regardless of a warrant or not I can't see too many things that would warrant searching someones cell phone for anything.

Off the top of my head I can think of...
Drug dealer. (Looking for contacts and working up to a bigger fish)
Terrorist. (Plot information and contacts.)
Murder Suspect. (Any info I guess.)

The above reasons I can understand the potential need to rifle through someones entire phone. Theres probably a few more good reasons. But if you're arrested for break and enter, domestic violence, traffic offense like speeding, or trespassing, or similar things, I see no need to have unwarranted access to someones phone.

Bottom line I guess is if they do allow this, they better ad some stipulations about what crimes and offenses justify a phone search.

This kind of goes into some pretty murky territory, really. According to your own article they can already go through whatever papers, and even pagers on a suspects person upon arrest. So within those guidelines I do not see where it should be disallowed. Nor do I see any deliberate wrong doing on the part of law enforcement as they are operating in the spirit of what they are already allowed to do.

Note that doesn't mean I particularly agree with any of it. It should always be difficult to prosecute criminal cases, especially today in the era of private prisons and mandatory sentencing. This is only causing some hysterics because of the current NSA wiretapping scandal. Which these types of cases are not a part of. The fact is in many cases the smart phone has replaced address books, notebooks and pagers in one device, so trying to differentiate them from those items is impossible.