Don't flip out! Spring for the smart phone!

This wikilog article is a draft, it was not published yet.

by: Ryan • April 29, 2014 • no comments

Here are two (similar) impressions of today's arguments (involving cell phone searches) at the United States Supreme Court:

SCOTUSblog

and

Volokh Conspiracy.

Both summaries are in agreement that the court is inclined to substantially greater protections for smart phones rather than flip phones. So if you'd prefer a little more freedom from gov't scrutiny, and your chances of being arrested are a little more than trivial, then I'd strongly recommend spending the extra money for a smart phone. That said, still no good reason for taking selfies in gang colors making gang signs.

Both summaries suggest the difficulty there will be in crafting a rule that strikes the right balance and can be reasonably applied in the field. Note further that in both cases, no warrant was involved.

We'll have an answer pretty quickly. By July, most likely.

If you want to read the transcripts of today's oral arguments, you can find them here.