Sunday, July 1, 2007

Warrantless Search of Cell Phone Content

Here's an interesting article demonstrating how new technologies are testing the limits of established jurisprudence.

In brief: A Kansas state trooper stopped a truck driver, arrested him for alleged drug possession, and downloaded the contents of his cell phones. The court held that the copying of cell phones' contents was permissible.

To learn more, click here.

Note to our students: This could give you ideas for your final paper - i.e., you could explore how ICT affects or clouds people's rights to illegal search and seizure, as well as privacy. And it's not just cellphones. How could this case apply to, say, data contained in your home computers or laptops?

1 comment:

emerson banez said...

the underlying logic seems to be similar for the doctrine (at least in some US jurisdictions)treating all email messages as publication since they "leave a permanent record" - including messages sent only to one person. as long as the messages can be reasonably subjected to scrutiny by third parties, it's publication (or in this case, since it passes through the phone company systems there is no reasonable expectation of privacy)

tell that to the guy texting sweet nothings to his girlfriend. the interpretation may be valid at a shallow, mechanical level - the kind of law available to bronze age desert tribes. even our old RPC recognizes that intent matters. im curious as to how this could play out in philippine courts. i am thinking the justices would be sensitive to prevailing norms.