Warrantless Cell Phone Searches
This is America, damn it. We hold our rights dearly. Given how much more information about our goings on including schedules, notes, photos, instant messages, and memos, law enforcement views the ability to act quickly to see what’s contained on cell phones, well let’s be honest, handheld computers, as a treasure trove of evidence in developing their cases.
With the intense panic about the prospects of terrorists’ attacks, the public is perhaps a little too scared to stand up and protect long established freedoms not fully appreciating how new technologies should be treated with the same respect as information sources from the past.
The fourth amendment couldn’t be any clearer about the matter under discussion as it establishes:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Do we honestly expect the Obama administration or Attorney General Eric Holder to consider little inconveniences like the United States Constitution when making policy?
The President has spoken frequently about the limits of The Constitution and also like many on the radical left consider it to be a “living” document whose intent must be stretched to deal with realities our founders might not have anticipated.
This is America, damn it. We hold our rights dearly. Given how much more information about our goings on including schedules, notes, photos, instant messages, and memos, law enforcement views the ability to act quickly to see what’s contained on cell phones, well let’s be honest, handheld computers, as a treasure trove of evidence in developing their cases.
With the intense panic about the prospects of terrorists’ attacks, the public is perhaps a little too scared to stand up and protect long established freedoms not fully appreciating how new technologies should be treated with the same respect as information sources from the past.
The fourth amendment couldn’t be any clearer about the matter under discussion as it establishes:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Do we honestly expect the Obama administration or Attorney General Eric Holder to consider little inconveniences like the United States Constitution when making policy?
The President has spoken frequently about the limits of The Constitution and also like many on the radical left consider it to be a “living” document whose intent must be stretched to deal with realities our founders might not have anticipated.
Electronically stored data is the new "paper" of the 21st Century but legal authorities don't even have to establish that when the amendment uses the term "effects" to cover those things not previously explicitly made clear.
While we do not look to the Founding Fathers as some kind of deities and accept courts play a vital roll in determining how constitutional mandates are applied, we find so many cases where The Constitution, particularly provisions in the first ten amendments, The Bill of Rights, couldn’t be any more clear and exact. This is one of those cases.
Law enforcement must accept the responsibility and do it the right way, get the warrants necessary.
While we do not look to the Founding Fathers as some kind of deities and accept courts play a vital roll in determining how constitutional mandates are applied, we find so many cases where The Constitution, particularly provisions in the first ten amendments, The Bill of Rights, couldn’t be any more clear and exact. This is one of those cases.
Law enforcement must accept the responsibility and do it the right way, get the warrants necessary.
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