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New article: "The iPhone Meets the Fourth Amendment"; or, search incident of cellphones run amok?

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

We already see search incident of the contents of cellphones, something that I disagree with, because, once the cellphone is out of the hands of the defendant, there is little that can be done to alter its stored electronic information. Sure, some "early" (pre-2004) phones may have a limited memory for incoming calls (say, 30 numbers), and some later incoming calls may erase the earliest ones in the queue. The remedy is to turn it off or remove the battery. But, case law thus far does not agree with me. Technology only expands, and, as it does, cellphones become more like computers, as with the iPhone, Blackberry, and MotoQ, phones that have comparably infinite storage capacity and web searching capability. What about all that information? What about cellphones that are web browsers or small computers? Can a small computer be subject to a search incident? Under the normal rationale, no...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on February 03, 2008 (boomark / email).