The Carpenter Case
[no description provided]On Wednesday, the supreme court will consider whether the government must obtain a warrant before accessing the rich trove of data that cellphone providers collect about cellphone users’ movements. Among scholars and campaigners, there is broad agreement that the case could yield the most consequential privacy ruling in a generation. ("Supreme court cellphone case puts free speech – not just privacy – at risk.")
Bruce Schneier has an article in the Washington Post, "How the Supreme Court could keep police from using your cellphone to spy on you," as does Stephen Sachs:
The Supreme Court will hear arguments this Wednesday in Carpenter v. United States, a criminal case testing the scope of the Fourth Amendment’s right to privacy in the digital age. The government seeks to uphold Timothy Carpenter’s conviction and will rely, as did the lower court, on the court’s 1979 decision in Smith v. Maryland, a case I know well.
I argued and won Smith v. Maryland when I was Maryland’s attorney general. I believe it was correctly decided. But I also believe it has long since outlived its suitability as precedent. ("The Supreme Court’s privacy precedent is outdated.")
I am pleased to have been able to help with an amicus brief in the case, and hope that the Supreme Court uses this opportunity to protect all of our privacy. Good luck to the litigants!