The Supreme Court has ruled a ruling with some significant implications for policing and personal privacy. To quote from a review from the Washington Post, “In a unanimous opinion by Chief Justice Roberts, the Court holds that searching a cell phone incident to arrest requires a warrant.”
A few comments on the ruling:
First, the analysis comes from Orin Kerr, a contributor to the Volokh Conspiracy (VC). The VC is a group of legal experts who for a long time maintained their own group blog, and I once had the task of editing a column maintained by one of its contributors. (He was, and is, an excellent writer.) The Post was wise to add VC to its stable of writers. Other legacy publications may find it wise to hire or otherwise establish branding agreements with non-journalistic experts with a proven track record of good writing and a healthy readership. (Any publication that works in the public policy or ski/snowboard space …. I’m here.)
Second, the Court observes that cell phones have many different functions: “The term ‘cell phone’ is itself misleading shorthand; many of these devices are in fact minicomputers that also happen to have the capacity to be used as a telephone. They could just as easily be called cameras,video players, rolodexes, calendars, tape recorders, libraries, diaries, albums, televisions, maps, or newspapers.” At the risk of endorsing the reasoning of the Court because I like the outcome, I think the Court got it right. It took the constitutional principles of the Fourth Amendment (printed in the next paragraph) and applied it to the society of today. By virtue of the data they can contain, cell phones have become the “houses, papers, and effects” of the digital age. The note that 12 percent of cell-phone users admit to taking their devices into the shower strikes me as a bit too much “jurisprudence by sociology.” I suppose the Court wanted us to know that it understands who connected we are to our phones.
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Third, the decision is a good time to review some developments that inspired the Fourth Amendment. Eugene Volokh has those, on a companion blog post.
Fourth, it’s encouraging that this case, Riley v. California (PDF), was a unanimous decision. This shows a significant endorsement of the idea that the state’s police power must abide by constitutional limits. (Justice Alito, though, issued a concurring opinion, asking legislatures to consider laws of their own and not rely on the “blunt instrument of the Fourth Amendment” and federal courts.)
Finally, as is true in many cases, this particular case came out of the actions of a not terribly attractive individual–someone quite possibly a gang-banger. But if you’re not willing to abide by a principle when it hurts, you’re not terribly committed to it.