In recent weeks, two cert petitions have been filed seeking review of how the Fourth Amendment applies to searching a cell phone incident to arrest. Although the two cases raise the same legal issue, the facts of the two cases actually are pretty different. And the difference in the facts reflects the fast-moving evolution of […]
Archive | Searches Incident to Arrest
First Circuit Denies En Banc Review in Cell Phone Search Case, But Two Judges Ask Supreme Court To Step In
Two weeks ago, when DOJ petitioned for rehearing en banc in United States v. Wurie, the Fourth Amendment case on searching cell phones incident to arrest, I wrote that the petition for rehearing was a possible preview of a future DOJ cert petition: I wouldn’t be surprised if this filing offers us a preview of […]
First Circuit Rules That Police Need a Warrant to Search A Cell Phone Incident to Arrest
I’ve blogged a few times about the substantial lower court division on whether the police can search a seized cell phone incident to arrest without a warrant under the Fourth Amendment. Today the First Circuit further deepened the split in United States v. Wurie by holding that a warrant is required. With Wurie today and […]
Florida Supreme Court Deepens Lower Court Split on Searching a Cell Phone Incident to Arrest
I recently mentioned my new short essay, Foreword: Accounting for Technological Change, 36 Harv. J. L. & Pub. Pol’y 403 (2013), about how the Supreme Court should resolve the lower court division on the Fourth Amendment rule for searching a cell phone incident to arrest. In light of that, I thought I would flag this […]
Judge Posner on Searching a Cell Phone Incident to Arrest
I am often filled with a mild sense of both excitement and dread when I learn that Judge Posner has authored an opinion in areas of law that I follow closely. Excitement, because I know it will be fascinating to read. And dread, because I know it will be filled with extensive error-prone dicta on […]