The erosion of our constitutional rights continues unabated. In addition to warrantless wiretapping, warrantless search and seizures of all your belongings at the border, now comes warrantless search of your cell/smart phone.
In California, it is now legal for police to search an arrestee's cell phone without a warrant -- ever since a January decision by the California Supreme Court. California civil rights advocates are pushing back. The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is supporting California Assembly Bill SB 914, which would require police in that state to get a warrant before searching an arrestee's cell phone.
According to the CNN report, EFF also recently filed an amicus brief in the Oregon case of James Tyler Nix, a criminal suspect who was arrested and placed in a holding cell. Without a warrant, an investigator fished through the suspect's cell phone looking for evidence related to his alleged crime. Law enforcement officials claim they didn't need a warrant because the search was 'incident to arrest' -- an exception to the warrant requirement intended to allow officers to perform a search for weapons or to prevent evidence from being destroyed in exigent circumstances." EFF attorney Marcia Hofmann called bullshit on that, saying, "The suspect was in custody and unable to destroy evidence on his cell phone."
Meanwhile, in Florida, an appellate court decision upheld warrantless cell phone searches, defining the phone as a kind of "container." This case may be considered by the Florida Supreme Court.
A similar Georgia appellate court decision upheld a warrantless search of a cell phone found in an arrestee's car (not on her person).
In contrast, the Ohio Supreme Court has barred warrantless cell phone searches.
Unfortunately, we can't expect the GOP-led congress to do the right thing-- so our only hope is that some of the conservative-leaning Supremes kick the bucket soon so that Obama can appoint their replacement.
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