[Infowarrior] - SCOTUS Seem Ready to Boost Protection of Digital Privacy

[Richard Forno]

Politics

Justices Seem Ready to Boost Protection of Digital Privacy

By ADAM LIPTAKNOV. 29, 2017

WASHINGTON — At a lively Supreme Court argument on Wednesday, a majority of the justices seemed troubled by the government’s ability to acquire troves of digital data without a warrant.

“Most Americans, I still think, want to avoid Big Brother,” said Justice Sonia Sotomayor. “They want to avoid the concept that government will be able to see and locate you anywhere you are, at any point in time.”

The argument lasted 20 minutes longer than the usual hour. By its conclusion, at least five justices seemed prepared to limit the government’s power to obtain records from cellphone companies showing their customers’ locations over long periods of time. But there was no consensus about a rationale for a decision or about how far the court was prepared to go to reshape longstanding constitutional doctrines that allow the government to obtain business records held by third parties.

The case concerns Timothy Ivory Carpenter, who was convicted of participating in a series of robberies, based in part on records provided by his cellular carrier showing his movements over several months. Nathan Freed Wessler, a lawyer for Mr. Carpenter, said prosecutors had violated the Fourth Amendment, which bars unreasonable searches, by failing to get a warrant for the information.

A ruling in Mr. Carpenter’s favor could revise a fundamental Fourth Amendment principle: that people have no reasonable expectation of privacy when they voluntarily turn over information to a third party, like a phone company.

Some justices said they were wary of acting rashly and worried about the consequences of a ruling in favor of Mr. Carpenter.

“This new technology is raising very serious privacy concerns,” Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. told Mr. Wessler, “but I need to know how much of existing precedent you want us to overrule or declare obsolete.”

The court’s decision in the case, Carpenter v. United States, No. 16-402, will apply the Fourth Amendment, drafted in the 18th century, to a world in which people’s movements are continually recorded by devices in their pockets and cars, by toll plazas and by transit systems.

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https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/29/us/politics/supreme-court-digital-privacy.html