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S.D. Fla.: Search incident of cellphone not justified

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A search incident of a cellphone is not justified. United States v. Wall, 2008 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103058 (S.D. Fla. December 22, 2008): The Seventh Circuit has permitted the admission of phone numbers found on a pager during a warrantless search at the time of the arrest. United States v. Ortiz, 84 F.3d 977, 984 (7th Cir. 1996). The court reasoned that pagers have a finite memory, and new incoming pages can potentially destroy previously stored numbers. Id. Thus, the court there found it necessary for law enforcement to immediately search pagers to prevent the destruction of evidence. Id. The Fifth Circuit has extended the holding of Ortiz to searches of cell phones. United States v. Finley, 477 F.3d 250, 260 (5th Cir. 2007). However, the Finley court did not explain why cell phones should be treated the same as pagers for purposes of the Fourth Amendment...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on December 24, 2008 (boomark / email).