Court Says Gov't Needs More Than The Assumption Someone Owns A Cellphone To Justify A Search

The DC Court of Appeals has shot some holes [PDF] in a favorite law enforcement assertion: that cellphones are automatically containers of criminal evidence just because suspected criminals -- like nearly everyone else in the nation -- have cellphones. A criminal case involving a suspected getaway driver for a year-old homicide somehow led to police seeking a warrant to seize and search all electronics found at the suspect's current residence. The details of the case are as follows: defendant Ezra Griffith talked to a couple of people about law enforcement's interest in his vehicle, which was apparently caught on surveillance cameras near the homicide crime scene.

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