Wednesday, June 25, 2014

A bit of good news for everyone

The Supreme Court rules that the police can no longer search your cell phone without a warrant.

Line drawn.


  "The chief justice cited court precedent that found a difference between asking someone to turn out his pockets versus “ransacking his house for everything which may incriminate him” — and the court found that a cellphone falls into that second category.

Complicating matters further is the question of where the data is actually stored. The Obama administration and the state of California, both of which sought to justify cell phone searches, acknowledged that remotely stored data couldn’t be searched — but Chief Justice Roberts said with cloud computing, it’s now sometimes impossible to know the difference.

The court did carve out exceptions for “exigencies” that arise, such as major security threats."

Of course, it was the administration and the People's Republic of California that wanted to deny you your right to privacy, and to empower the state to grab yet one more thing of yours, but somehow even the progressive justices sided with the people on this one.

It's a small victory, but a victory none the less.  Savor it while it lasts.


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