The California Supreme Court decided that police may search through cell phone text messages without a warrant after an arrest.
They noted, "the [US Supreme Court has] rejected the proposition that whether a particular container may be searched without a warrant depends on the extent of the arrestee's reasonable expectation of privacy in that container[.]"
In lay terms, our collective and reasonable expectations of privacy is irrelevant in how courts interpret the 4th Ammendment. What is sad is that I think the majority correctly interprets Supreme Court precedent, and the US Supreme Court's interpretation of the Fourth Amendment really is just that weak.
Thursday, January 6, 2011
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My Kelly Building colleague Jon Hansen related how he went over to Butler County on a case and raised a fourth amendment issue. After the hearing was over (he had lost) and he was chatting with the Judge, Jon remarked, "I didn't realize until I researched the issue for this case how weak the fourth amendment had become." The Judge, who was a pretty straight-laced guy, responded, sort of under his breath, "fourth amendment, what fourth amendment".
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