Via maxwellhill at reddit, we find this; it's painful.
The California Supreme Court allowed police Monday to search arrestees' cell phones without a warrant, saying defendants lose their privacy rights for any items they're carrying when taken into custody.The establishing precedent is the police ability to open cigarette packs and search clothing, thanks to U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the 1970s. The dissenting judges think searching cig packs for illegal drugs and searching data for ... what? illegal gmail addresses? ... is like searching for apples in an orange grove. Silly they.
Under U.S. Supreme Court precedents, "this loss of privacy allows police not only to seize anything of importance they find on the arrestee's body ... but also to open and examine what they find," the state court said in a 5-2 ruling.
The majority, led by Justice Ming Chin, relied on decisions in the 1970s by the nation's high court upholding searches of cigarette packages and clothing that officers seized during an arrest and examined later without seeking a warrant from a judge.
The dissenting justices said those rulings shouldn't be extended to modern cell phones that can store huge amounts of data.
Other states have ruled differently, notably Ohio, which means the Roberts Majority could well get a crack at enshrining this violation into law.
This is probably a good time to remind ourselves that the conservative mind is ruled by fear and the need for big strong daddies.
In a world in which we're watching from the moon, it might be amusing to see the teabags get what they ask for. Sadly for us, we're not watching from the moon.
GP
