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Court OKs Warrantless Cell Phone Search, Auto Inventory Search

By Jonathan Byrne

US v. Murphy: Murphy was convicted of conspiracy to distribute narcotics. The evidence against him consisted largely of items found following a traffic stop of a car in which Murphy (and two others) were riding. Murphy sought to have two pieces of evidence suppressed - information taken from his cell phone and more than $14,000 in cash recovered from a bag in the car's trunk. The district court denied Murphy's motion to suppress.On appeal, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the district court and Murphy's conviction. As for the cell phone, the court first concluded that it was lawfully seized from Murphy during a search incident to a lawful arrest. Second, the court concluded that due to the potential loss of information from the cell phone, its contents could be viewed by the officers without waiting for a warrant to be obtained to search its contents...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Circuit Blog on January 20, 2009 (boomark / email).