SCOTUSblog summarizes next week's two big cell phone search cases

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

by: Ryan • April 25, 2014 • no comments

The United States Supreme Court will hear back-to-back arguments next week on warrantless searches of cell phones, one a flip phone and one a smart phone. The SCOTUSblog analysis is here.

We can probably anticipate there will be a decision on both cases by July. With luck, the news will be good, and then we can anticipate challenges to cell phone searches based on overly broad search warrants (e.g., if there's probable cause exists that defendant's e-mails on March 1 will show calls relevant to a crime committed that day, why should the government get a warrant allowing the police to look through his entire Facebook history?). Such cases are already working their way through the system now.