Cell Phones and the Constitution

I believe that police should not be able to look at our phones without a warrant. Unless it is an EXTREMELY urgent and dangerous situation between life and death, I believe everyone should have a right to privacy on their phones. If a person is a suspect for committing a crime and the police want to check his/her phone, they should have to have a search warrant. But if a situation is, for example, a threat against the safety of lives, or someone who has committed multiple heinous crimes and is on the most wanted list, then police should be able to look at his/her phone. There should be very specific standards to keep people safe and to prevent tragic events from occurring, but also give people as much privacy as possible.

In Riley v. California, I would have to agree with the Supreme Court. Although it was a horrible act he did, it had already occurred so I believe that the police would have needed to receive a warrant "just as the police [would] need permission to search inside someone's home" (14). Going through his phone without a warrant was a violation of the Fourth Amendment. And to get a warrant, the police can use e-mail and get one within 15 minutes (17). Because this case was not a real emergency situation and happened in the past, I think that the police could have gotten a warrant. And in some "now-or-never" cases, "like finding a ticking bomb or a kidnapped child," a search can occur without a warrant for these emergencies (17). This case was just not one of them.