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Tuesday, August 14, 2012

Cell phones, privacy & the 4th Amendment

The introduction of new technology challenges the U.S. Supreme Court's 1967 guidelines in Katz v. U.S. that the 4th Amendment protects a person's "reasonable expectation of privacy."  What is a person's reasonable expectation of privacy in their cell phone contents, such as stored numbers or text messages?  What about a person's location, now trackable through GPS devices embedded within cell phones, is there a reasonable expectation of privacy in location?  These are, as of yet, unanswered questions which the U.S. Supreme Court will likely be required to confront in the near future.  In U.S. v. Jones (2011) the U.S. Supreme Court only ventured minimally into this area without committing itself to a definitive stance and reverting back to 18th century trespassory logic to resolve a 4th Amendment claim.  Always slow to respond to technology the Court will have to one day consolidate the varying federal and state court treatments of search issues surrounding cell phones and other forms of portable (and intrusive) technology.  The attached article discusses some of the different results from U.S. courts when it comes to cell phone searches.
http://www.policeone.com/legal/articles/5907286-Cell-phones-privacy-and-the-Fourth-Amendment/