Big Brother would have loved your smartphone. It not only knows where you've been and who's in touch with you but also records your photos, texts, emails and social media exchanges. Linked to the cloud, it allows access to your entire digital lifespan, including financial and medical records.
But can the police search your smartphone — that is, when they arrest you for, say, driving without a seat belt? There may not be a more important privacy question in our lifetimes, and the U.S. Supreme Court has just heard an argument on it.
The constitutional background here is pretty straightforward. The Fourth Amendment protects not only your person, but also your "papers and effects" against warrantless search. If you're arrested, there's an exception: The police can search for weapons within reach, and they can search for and seize any evidence on you "in order to prevent its concealment or destruction," according to a 1969 precedent. Under truly urgent circumstances — say, a ticking time bomb — police can ignore the warrant standards altogether.