Supreme Court Rules Police Need a Warrant to Search Cell Phones

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court ruled that police officers need a warrant to search through the data on the cell phone of a suspect.

Currently, officers can go through pockets and sift through such items as wallets, cigarette packs and wads of paper. However, the court ruled unanimously that cell phones are a completely different animal. The court ruled that the vast amount of data contained within mobile devices is wholly different than that which could exist inside a purse or wallet. In his opinion, Chief Justice Roberts wrote, “Modern cell phones, as a category, implicate privacy concerns far beyond those implicated by the search of a cigarette pack, a wallet or a purse.”