December 26, 2019
The Fourth Amendment has long been understood to be an important source of constitutional protection of an individual’s right to privacy. The rise of digital technologies has, however, eroded the clarity of these protections, which turn on physical words such as “persons, houses, papers, and effects.” Legally, a police investigation only implicates the Fourth Amendment…
April 16, 2019
United States v. Wanjiku is one of many recent Fourth Amendment cases that have come before circuit courts regarding border searches of cell phones. This batch of litigation sprung in part from the Supreme Court decision in Riley v. California, which held that officers generally need a warrant to conduct incidental searches of cell phones…
June 25, 2018
In Carpenter v. United States, Chief Justice John Roberts began the process of future-proofing the Fourth Amendment. In a majority opinion marked by technological sophistication and powerful arguments about arbitrary government surveillance, but overshadowed by four separate dissenting opinions, Carpenter both reframes the Fourth Amendment and reveals its fractured soul. To understand Carpenter is to…
December 8, 2017
Last week, the Supreme Court heard oral argument in Carpenter v. United States, which will decide whether the government may acquire — without a warrant, and without probable cause — records of a person’s movements, using cell-site location information. It was a lively argument, but I’m going to focus on Justice Gorsuch’s questions about what…
October 27, 2017
Later this year, the Supreme Court will hear argument in Carpenter v. United States. The question presented is whether the government may, without a warrant and without probable cause, obtain your location information from a third party that has it (like your cell-phone provider). In Carpenter, the government learned where a criminal suspect had gone…
