"The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that police can search the cell phone of a person who's been arrested -- including text messages -- without obtaining a warrant, and use that data as evidence."
Apparently, the Court thinks that because the phone is an item of property on the person at the time of an arrest, the phone's data history is fair game to search without a warrant. A former Justice Department employee was interviewed about it:
""The door is open for police to search the entire contents of iPhones or other smart phones that people routinely carry, he said.
"In fact, I would be shocked if police weren't getting instructions right now to do just that," he said.
By applying the "personal property on the defendant's person" standard, Rasch said, the ruling could logically extend to tablets or even laptop computers, he said."
The advice offered was to password protect your phone, as the case does not compel anyone to divulge a password. I would add that we might delete e-mail and text history.
Does anyone else find it funny that this happened in California?
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