Do police need a warrant to search an ‘abandoned’ cellphone? Attorneys ask SCOTUS to hear VA case

If you don't use the security features it's fair game. It's everyone's job to secure our PII. He left it, don't matter if it was accidental, out in the open without using the built in security features that come on every modern cell phones. No different than if he has left his wallet behind and they looked at his drivers license.

Use the security features and don't shoot at people. I think that's pretty solid ground.

 

That’s like arguing if you don’t lock your car it’s ok to search it. I prefer to err on the side of protecting our rights

 

If you want to protect your rights, use the security features. A phone is not a car but a car can be search without a warrant with valid PC. There was more than enough PC to riffle thru this phone since a violent crime had just taken place. The scope was limited as well.

 

I agree with some of that, but I still cannot categorize this phone as abandoned, based on the info in the OP...

I also don't think your rights stop because you didn't utilize a phone feature...

 

If the trash is outside one's home, the police do not need a search warrant.

https://www.findlaw.com/legalblogs/criminal-defense/can-police-search-through-your-trash/

• Trash on the curb. Your right to privacy in your property extends outward to what is called a curtilage, the area immediately surrounding your home. This curtilage, however, does not include trash that is left outside your home on the curb for pickup. Since courts have decided you have no expectation of privacy in trash left out on the street, police are free to rummage through it without probable cause or a warrant.

 

ETA ↑ just realized this was posted.

Don't they need a warrant to even shuffle through your trash? I think an "abandoned" phone should be treated no differently than your own waste. Granted, I think once waste leaves your property, they no longer require a warrant.

 

I'm totally fine with your cellphone being found in your trash being opened by the police.... I thought that was sort of a bad hypothetical in the OP, but it's what they went with.

What did you think of the example in the OP? Was that phone abandoned, or do the police have PC to explore it after the shooting?

Or both? Or neither?

 

if they want to use the evidence in a court of law, they best follow procedure

 

From how I see it, it seems they have the jurisdiction to look into the phone's contents.