Month: June 2014

In a shockingly unanimous decision handed down this morning in Riley v. California, SCOTUS ruled that police must obtain a warrant to search the contents of your cell phone in all but the most extraordinary circumstances:

In broad language, Chief Justice John Roberts carved out protections for privacy in the digital age, saying that “more substantial privacy interests are at stake when digital data is involved” than in the past, in part because a cell phone collects “in one place many distinct types of information that reveal much more in combination than any isolated record.” …

Law enforcement officials are still free to search the immediate area of an arrest to ensure their safety and protect evidence without a warrant. Police can also seek a warrant to search a cell phone from an arrested suspect. But the decision is notable because the court has struggled in past cases to define clear and broad rules where digital technology and constitutional rights collided.

Ian Millhiser outlines the court’s argument for why a “search incident to arrest” – a general exception to the Fourth Amendment’s warrant requirement – can’t be applied to the contents of your phone:

As Roberts lays out, few of the traditional justifications for a search incident to arrest authorize a full search of a suspect’s cell phone.

The data stored on a phone “cannot itself be used as a weapon to harm an arresting officer or to effectuate the arrestee’s escape.” If the phone conceals a weapon, officers can search the physical phone itself without actually accessing its electronic contents. And, if police fear that a suspect may delete incriminating evidence on the phone, in most cases they can alleviate this fear by taking the phone from the suspect and waiting until they obtain a warrant to search it. If they fear that any data on the phone may be remotely wiped, they can store the phone in a place where cell phone signals cannot reach it.

These reasons, combined with the distinct character of cell phones as compared to the kind of objects people used to carry on their person when the Court’s Fourth Amendment doctrines developed, justify requiring police to obtain a warrant before they may search a cell phone. As Roberts lays out, “[p]rior to the digital age, people did not typically carry a cache of sensitive personal information with them as they went about their day. Now it is the person who is not carrying a cell phone, with all that it contains, who is the exception.”

Ilya Shapiro comments on the court’s “really surprising” unanimity:

Sweeping rulings on high-profile subjects tend to split the Court, whether ideologically or, in criminal procedure cases like this one, between formalists and pragmatists. Unanimous rulings, meanwhile, tend to be cautious, splitting the baby in a way that doesn’t significantly change the law. Yet here we have a loud and unified “bright-line rule” that sets a major standard for the digital age. Kudos to the Court—and raspberries to the federal government, which has now had its expansive arguments rejected unanimously 11 times since January 2012.

And Drum cheers:

See? I told you the Supreme Court was a remarkably agreeable place. And in this case, they were remarkably agreeable even though lower courts had split on this issue and it could easily have broken down along normal left (yay civil liberties!) and right (yay law enforcement!) lines. Instead, all nine of the justices did the right thing. For a brief moment, we can all celebrate.

Read the ruling in full here. The Dish covered arguments in the Riley case here.

Desperate Cochran pleaded w/ black Democrats and welfare recipients that he “brings home bacon.” Cochran is symbol of everything wrong w/USA

— Wayne Allyn Root (@WayneRoot) June 25, 2014

It appears that the sectarianism is deepening:

In essence, tea party activists are the RINOs. A Republican Party campaigning on making the Senate “conservative,” used liberal Democrats to preserve an incumbent Republican and defeat a conservative. The actual conservatives are the outsiders with the GOP establishment doing all it could to preserve its power at the expense of its principles.

The problem for those who call themselves Republicans is that it is harder and harder to say exactly what a Republican is these days. The great lesson from Mississippi is that Republican means, more or less, that if elected the party will reward its major donors, who are just different than the Democrats’ major donors. Policy differences are about different donors, not an actual agenda to shift the country in a different direction. The Republicans have become the party of lobbyists, most of whom were on twitter celebrating their purchase.

And we have arguably the most incendiary sectarian tactic yet – deploying African-American Democratic voters to beat back the Tea Party, with an extra-nuts-making flier making a difference:

In Jackson’s Hinds County, where two-thirds of the population is black, Cochran won 73 percent of the vote, 7 points higher than his performance in the primary. Turnout was up significantly in heavily African-American counties in the Mississippi Delta, like Quitman, Sharkey, Humphrey, and Coahoma, where Cochran increased his primary-election margins over McDaniel. Over 347,000 voters cast ballots in the runoff, a higher total than in the primary—marking the first time in 30 years that has happened in any Senate race.

“Looking at county data, Cochran’s #MSSEN win is almost entirely attributable to a large turnout increase among black voters b/t 6/3 and 6/24,” tweeted Cook Political Report analyst David Wasserman.

Here’s a little nugget from the NYT that will send every Drudge reader up the wall:

Kino Sintee, 17, and three black friends waved “Thad” signs on a street corner in a black Hattiesburg neighborhood. They said the preacher from Mount Olive Baptist Church asked them to help out. “They’re talking about taking everything away from us,” he said. “People still need stuff.”

And the entire legitimacy of the process is being challenged by an infuriated base:

“As you know today, folks, there were literally dozens of irregularities reported all across this state,” McDaniel said. “You know why. You read the stories. You’re familiar with the problems that we have. Now it’s our job to make sure that the sanctity of the vote is upheld. Before this race ends, we have to be absolutely certain that the Republican primary was won by Republican voters. We will stand with courage, we will stand with judgment, we will stand with integrity. This is our fight conservatives. This is necessary. We are not prone to surrender, we Mississippians. A strong and sturdy people we are, a brave people we are, a people that can still lead the conservative revival in this country. We will lead the resurgence. That begins right here in Mississippi.”

This party is deeply fractured; and this run-off election has taken every factor deepening those fractures and intensified them. And the insurgency rages on …

(Graphic from Nate Cohn)

The latest machination:

[Yesterday] the Russian president made a request to the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, that they revoke his right to stage a military intervention in Ukraine. [Today] they will undoubtedly approve his request, just as they approved his request for that questionable authority several months ago. Although Ukraine’s president welcomes Putin’s move as a “first practical step,” skepticism remains with good reason. After all, Russia last week began to regroup thousands of troops near the Ukrainian border, less than a month after promising to remove troops. And, the separatists, some of whom claim to be Chechen mercenaries on official orders, have an uncanny ability to get their hands on tanks, rocket launchers, and other military equipment, and earlier [yesterday] they broke a ceasefire they agreed to several days ago.

Anna Nemtsova tries to get in Putin’s head:

Why would Putin want his hands tied (however loosely)? One likely reason: He made the request a few days before European leaders are to discuss new sanctions against Russia, this time covering the banking sector. Another possibility: He can get the reversal reversed any time he wants, and may be trying, once again, to wrong-foot the West by talking conciliation while stepping up covert action to support the rebels in eastern Ukraine.

Bershidsky also makes clear why Putin’s gesture is bullshit:

Given his rubber-stamp parliament, Putin can gain permission to send troops back to Ukraine at any time. Besides, if Putin’s goal is to keep Poroshenko off balance, an invasion isn’t necessary. Russia has already succeeded in drawing out the conflict, arming rebels and making it possible for Russian citizens to fight on the separatists’ side. So much for “deceit.”

As for “bargaining,” it has now started in Donetsk, with Ukrainians from both camps searching for compromise. [Viktor] Medvedchuk’s ties to both Putin and Poroshenko — along with the possible backing of one of Ukraine’s richest men, Rinat Akhmetov — suggests a resolution with the armed rebels is in sight. The rebels have been useful to Putin, but they are unreliable over the long term. The Kremlin prefers to work with familiar pro-Russian politicians and businessmen in Ukraine’s east to make sure Ukraine doesn’t end up in the Western bloc.

In effect, Putin is now ready to enter the quiet phase of his Ukraine operation. The West will acquiesce to his game — but only after claiming that sanctions have been a success.

Keating’s take:

With more international sanctions potentially on the way, Putin lately seems to be playing the unlikely role of good cop in this conflict, voicing support for reconciliation and peace while the pro-Russian rebels keep fighting with what certainly seems like tacit support from Moscow, and his foreign minister and the national gas monopoly keep up the pressure on Kiev. Some of the rebel groups may also have gone rogue – some members of the recently formed militia group Russian Orthodox Army recently expressing irritation with Putin’s on-again-off-again support.

In any event, the good news is that the worst-case scenario – full Russian invasion – now looks extremely unlikely. But the volatile mess in Eastern Ukraine still looks a long way from resolution.

(Photo from Getty)