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Court OKs searches of cell phones without warrant

842 views 15 replies 11 participants last post by  Siege 
#1 ·
Court OKs searches of cell phones without warrant...

The California Supreme Court allowed police Monday to search arrestees' cell phones without a warrant, saying defendants lose their privacy rights for any items they're carrying when taken into custody.

Under U.S. Supreme Court precedents, "this loss of privacy allows police not only to seize anything of importance they find on the arrestee's body ... but also to open and examine what they find," the state court said in a 5-2 ruling.
Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2011/01/03/BA5N1H3G12.DTL&tsp=1

Wow..... :?
 
#5 ·
The cops should be allowed to inspect the device to make sure it is what it appears to be, and not a disguised weapon or carrying-case for contraband. You could hold a lot of drugs or explosives in the shell of what used to be a laptop computer.

As far as viewing and copying and sifting through the mountains of data that one might have on a modern wireless device like a phone or computer, that should be off-limits. Search warrant required, only issued on the gov't showing probable cause that evidence of a crime will be found there.

I hope the U.S. Supreme Court gives us our 4th Amendment back.

P.S. I've never researched the caselaw on books, journals, and diaries, but what about those written documents? If some guy gets arrested while carrying a briefcase, can the cops not just "look in" the briefcase to see if there are weapons or drugs there, but can they also go over his business ledgers? Read his personal diary? I hope not.

Searches incidental to arrest need to be scaled-back.

Inventory searches of towed or impounded vehicles needs to be forbidden, too. Just because I get arrested for DUI in my 1988 Buick shouldn't mean that back at the police station all the cops get to read my diary that I had in the trunk.
 
#6 ·
Why not? What kinda junk ya got in yer trunk, Guns? :lol: :lol:
8)

And .... I completely agree that the information on a cellphone should be included in the definition of "persons, houses, papers, and effects" enumerated by the Constitution.
 
#7 ·
gunsmoker said:
The cops should be allowed to inspect the device to make sure it is what it appears to be, and not a disguised weapon or carrying-case for contraband. .....but can they also go over his business ledgers? Read his personal diary? ..............Searches incidental to arrest need to be scaled-back.

.....
Why? Should they be allowed to look in my chapstick to determine if that is wax? OH, I know, they should go test my cars' key fob to see if that is what they really are! Then, because they included/disrupted the cars' security systems, they should inventory those! My newspaper should be read, in case there are any treasonous documents beiong given to Julian. Let's confiscate that iPod, it's a memory device and he could be hiding things... Oh, I know! They should rip apart the battery in my phone to see if it is really a battery... Is that insulin? ....afterall it could be used to pack with explosives... Or how about noting the serial number of my weapons? The serial numbers could be traced back to real crimes? That seems a real and imminent threat....

Oh, nevermind... You have a GWL, and you are free to go now. Turn around and I'll unshackle you.....

Searches incidental to arrest really need to be scaled-back, I agree.
 
#10 ·
"Cell Phone" no longer means just phone ... it doesn't even just mean text messages.

Through extension will they be allowed to search any online site for which credentials are stored on the device? Read all your e-mails? Check your bank balance? Your transaction records? All could be easily and readily available if the mobile device is in-scope.
 
#11 ·
jlw253 said:
"Cell Phone" no longer means just phone ... it doesn't even just mean text messages.

Through extension will they be allowed to search any online site for which credentials are stored on the device? Read all your e-mails? Check your bank balance? Your transaction records? All could be easily and readily available if the mobile device is in-scope.
Anyone familiar with the internal practices of cellular providers will tell you that you have NO privacy and NO control over any device you bought from them that has a cellular connection. Don't save your passwords. Don't save your private documents. Preferably don't ever let your passwords pass through the device. If you don't want someone to have the instantaneous ability to see everything you've ever tapped into that phone, hook it up to your laptop as a data connection and encrypt the connection. I don't put passwords into phones under any circumstances. My PDA with a wi-fi connection handles that.
 
#12 ·
Hack Causality said:
My PDA with a wi-fi connection handles that.
That's my point and my fear -- I wouldn't expect the run-of-the-mill LEO (or anyone for that matter) to make a practical distinction between a wireless-enabled device and a wi-fi-enabled PDA.
 
#15 ·
There is no 4th amendment anyway. Everything you do and everything you say on an electronic device is grabbed anyway.

I guess the only things sort of protected now, are the items in your home, they'll probably get a warrant before they search or confiscate those, if you're lucky.

Everything else is not protected by the 4th amendment.
 
#16 ·
Thank * I don't live in Commiefornia, and frankly, living under the jurisdiction of the 9th Circuit when I was in Seattle rubbed me wrong in so many ways, it was almost a moral and ethical imperative to escape the region for that alone.

Judge(s) in question can bite me. Encrypt your device storage, encrypt your entire device if possible, and be sure to use something more complex than "slide to unlock".

Want my passwords? Go pound sand: you can't have them, and you can suck on my 5th Amendment rights. You can even hold me in contempt for sticking to said rights, if you want, but I will NOT for any reason under any circumstances bow to--and thus validate--such a violation of my rights, regardless of what some snob liberal judge with no understanding of the concepts our nation was founded on thinks.
 
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