Smartphones, Police, and the Fourth Amendment

Smartphones, Police, and the Fourth Amendment

All to frequently, one of the things police officers do when they stop or arrest people in their late teens to early twenties is ask for their phone. The police officer then usually goes through the information on the phone. This happens to my students on a pretty frequent basis. What is most troubling is that the United States Supreme Court has held that police need a warrant to go through a person’s smart phone. Even if the police have arrested you, they still need a warrant to go through a person’s phone. In Riley v. California the Supreme Court’s ruling was 9 – 0 which is a rarity. The Court held that police must have a warrant to search...