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Monday, March 20, 2017

Supreme Court rules cell phones cannot be searched without a warrant

Police need a warrant to search the cell phone of a person who has been arrested, absent special circumstances, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

“Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience. With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans ‘the privacies of life,’” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote. “The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make the information any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought. Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to an arrest is accordingly simple — get a warrant.”

The high court took two cases involving cell phone searches, one involving a smartphone and the other involving a relatively basic flip phone. In both cases, police used information on each phone to connect the plaintiffs to crimes. San Diego Police used pictures in David Leon Riley’s smartphone, and the guns they found in his trunk after pulling him over for a traffic violation, to tie him to a local faction of the Bloods street gang and an earlier shooting. In Boston, Brima Wurie was arrested on suspicion of being involved in selling drugs and a picture linked to a phone call on his flip phone to a stash of crack cocaine.

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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Put a password on your phone

Anonymous said...

9:57am you beat me to it. If you put a password on your phone then they won't have easy access to it if you get pulled over.

Anonymous said...

No warrant needed when going through customs/immigration upon entering US even for citizens.

Anonymous said...

Police need a warrant to search the cell phone of a person who has been arrested, absent special circumstances, a unanimous Supreme Court ruled Wednesday.

Anonymous said...

Customs and Border Patrol are not police, they are Federal Agents. Google phone searches at border. They can detain you, confiscate phone and make you provide password.

Zorro said...

This screws of the bullies at Wicomico County Sheriff's office.....oooohhh noooooo Mr. Lewis.... you and your bullies are going to be fired....better get a job tossing Hamburgers Lewis..