Lawmakers on Monday unanimously approved legislation that would prevent law enforcement officers from looking through the smartphones and other electronic devices of people they arrest unless they obtain a search warrant.Technology has changed faster than our individual rights have been upgraded to protect from needless intrusion, and today people carry nearly as much personal information on their smart phones as on their home computers. If there's probable cause to go through that information, fine. Let a judge make that determination. But it shouldn't just be something police get to do by rote whenever they arrest someone.
The Assembly voted 55-0 for the protections. The bill by Democratic Sen. Mark Leno of San Francisco returns to the Senate, which previously approved it in a slightly different form.
If eventually signed into law, SB914 would override a recent California Supreme Court decision allowing warrantless searches of electronic devices. The court ruled that police could use a suspect's text messages in a 2007 drug arrest without first receiving a judge's permission.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Ban warrantless searches of smart phones
Here's some new legislation out of California I'd like to see passed in Texas. From AP:
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11 comments:
There should be an exception to this law for the growing use of cell phones and texting to orchestrate "Flash Mob" offenses.
Why, do you think judges would refuse warrants in those cases?
sorry 11:45 we have far far far too many so-called "exceptions" to our constutional protections as it is.
The Supreme Court has put so many holes in the Fourth Amendment that, were it a round of Swiss cheese, there would not be enough of the cheese to cover a single saltine cracker.
...Because this new growing group of offenders find safe haven hiding in the mass of anonimity. I firmly believe we all may need to consider making some sacrifices for the good of the whole and for a better community tomorrow. If the fear of a warrantless search keeps someone from doing illegal crap with technology I would say that is a very low cost victory in deterring crime.
Our Constitution is becoming an instrument of abuse used against US citizens. Terrorists, Drug Cartels, Illegal aliens...so on, are afforded more protections than citizens currently receive. And if a tax paying US citizen says anything about it they get beat over the head with the constitution???
Let's have a FLASH MOB @ Scott's house.....lol
AtG, you actually need friends to execute a flash mob, it's not really something a lone troll can accomplish. So good luck with that.
1:44, can you describe a circumstance in which requiring a warrant to search a cell phone would inhibit law enforcement in any way? For actual crimes like the recent flash mob offenses, there's zero chance a judge won't sign off on a search.
Also, this statement is absurd: "Our Constitution is becoming an instrument of abuse used against US citizens." You are welcome to waive all your Constitutional rights whenever you like, but keep your paws off mine.
Okay 11:45, 1:44 - how about if I make an anonymous call to the police right now saying that I have reason to believe you have something illegal on your phone. It seems that you would be perfectly okay if the police showed up at your house and demanded to search your phone without a warrant, even using force against you if necessary. Is that the kind of world you want to live in? I don't. People who are not willing to defend the constitution don't deserve its protection.
On the East coast on Monday a federal judge in Brooklyn ruled that the federal government must establish probable cause and secure a warrant before obtaining records about a cell phone user's location, saying it violated the Fourth Amendment's protections against unreasonable searches, according to the New York Law Journal.
no offense 1:44 but it's people in this country like you that have pretty much DESTROYED it! we may NEVER get back the rights guaranteed to us by the constution that made us the greatest country on earth!
I agree Grit's our Constitution Rights no longer exist. It only protects the LEA and DA'S to abuse it citizens.
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