Cali. Gov. Brown to allow police to search phones without a warrant

Oct 11 by Connor Livingston | 4 comments

Governor Brown

Despite heavy support from both parties and an outcry of the people, California Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a bill passed by state legislature that would have banned searches of smartphones by police without a warrant.

The ban would have prevented police officers from searching smartphones during an arrest. Many smartphones have persistent logins to personal communication services such as email and Facebook, keep track of locations the phone has been, and give access to personal contacts. This stays in line with a California Supreme Court decision that was upheld by the US Supreme Court last week allowing warrantless searches of people during police incidents.

The bill unanimously passed the Assembly 70-0 and passed the Senate 32-4.

It could not pass Brown.

“The courts are better suited to resolve the complex and case-specific issues relating to constitutional search-and-seizure protections,” Brown said.

Several police unions who opposed the bill have donated a total of over $160,000 to Brown’s campaign.

WRITTEN BY CONNOR LIVINGSTON

Connor is a technology blogger and avid social media user. Follow him on Twitter: @cqlivingston

COMMENTS
  • Anonymous

    What? Cali doesn’t have a veto override mechanism in place?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_P3P6M2JWDU5PEHXFPZSMGUOEXA Chris

    Dream Act, Opposition To Guns, Illegal Search and Seizure. The state voted for an extreme liberal. You got one.

  • http://www.coffeehousetalks.com Andrew Selbst

    Just as a note, if the Supreme Court denies certiorari, the case was not “upheld.” “Upheld” implies decided on the merits, while a denial of cert is a refusal to hear, which should not be read as saying anything about the merits.

  • Anonymous

    Why would an officer need to put his hands on my cellphone, anyway?Â