Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Cell Phones and The Constitution

      I think that it is a good idea for the police to be able to search your cell phone without a warrant. Police are allowed to seize and examine anything you have on you, so why should a cell phone be any different. I mean I think there should be an extent to when they can search your phone. In the Riley v. California case they said "During the traffic stop, police found two loaded guns"(14) so they examined his smartphone and found evidence that he was associated with a local gang. In this case I think it was in the police's best interest to search David's phone. "The possibility that evidence could be destroyed or hidden by remote wiping,"(16) this quote is saying that if the police had to wait to get a warrant to search his phone, all evidence of David being associated with a shooting with a local gang, they would have never been convicted to attempted murder. "But in landmark ruling about privacy rights this summer, the Supreme Court overturned Riley's conviction."(14) Since the police didn't get a warrant before searching David's phone, the Supreme Court said that he was accused improperly so they threw out his conviction. I don't agree with the Supreme Court's ruling because now David doesn't have to serve 15 years to life of attempted murder that there was evidence he did.