Prior To Cell Phones, Our Founders Wrote: “The Right Of The People To Be Secure In Their Persons, Houses, Papers, And Effects, Against Unreasonable Searches And Seizures, Shall Not Be Violated.” Fourth Amendment.

A California man was stopped for driving with expired registration. His car was impounded and an inventory search revealed loaded firearms. Incident to arrest, the man was also searched, and police seized his cell phone from his pants pocket. Police accessed information in the “smart phone,” and found significant evidence of gang involvement. In the man’s trial for an earlier shooting, the man moved to suppress all evidence that the police had obtained from his cell phone, which motion was denied by the court. He was later convicted. The United States Supreme Court reversed the judgment of conviction, stating: “Modern cell phones are not just another technological convenience.  With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans ‘the privacies of life,’ [] The fact that technology now allows an individual to carry such information in his hand does not make it any less worthy of the protection for which the Founders fought. Our answer to the question of what police must do before searching a cell phone seized incident to arrest is accordingly simple—get a warrant.” (Riley v. California (U.S. Sup. Ct.; June 25, 2014) 134 S.Ct. 2473; 189 L.Ed.2d 430].)