Charlie Avery Mr. Kotowski U.S. History 17 February, 2015 Riley vs. California Research Paper The Riley versus California case is one of the most recent Supreme Court proceedings dealing with the Fourth Amendment. The case between David Leon Riley and the State of California was fought over whether police should be able to search cell phones without a warrant when they are apprehending a suspect. The Supreme Court had the Job of discovering if Riley’s Fourth Amendment right to be free from unreasonable searches was violated (EPIC, “Riley v. California”). The judges, headed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts had a very difficult decision to make, as they had to apply an Amendment from 1789 to the modern, digital age, where people store so …show more content…
Upon searching Riley’s name in their database, officers discovered that Riley had been driving on a suspended license, and put him under arrest (Oyez, “Riley v. California”). The article from Oyez also says that the Police’s standard protocol was to search the car for drugs, firearms, or any suspicious items before impounding the car. When this occurred, two guns were found. After finding this information the police also examined Riley’s cellphone before obtaining a proper warrant; they found pictures of Riley flashing gang signs, texts, all of which were subsequently used to link Riley to an attempted homicide twenty days prior to the arrest, with this evidence Riley was charged with an unassociated murder on August 2nd. (EPIC, “Riley v. California”) Bensur and Brokamp say in their article that in court, Riley claimed that his Fourth Amendment right was violated because the officers did not have probable cause also called reasonable suspicion to examine his phone. The case went to the Supreme Court and the judges agreed that the police had acted …show more content…
Roberts. The Court’s decision was a unanimous 9-0 in favor of David Riley (Oyez, “Riley v. California”). This means that there was no dissenting opinion because the all the judges voted the same. In the judges statement says that it is unnecessary to search the phone right away because it can just be held until a proper warrant is obtained. The judges also claimed that because of the “Cloud” most of the information that would be searched is not technically in physical possession of the person.(Oyez, “Riley v. California”). It is clear from this ruling that the Supreme Court Judges want to make sure that everyone in the U.S. has the privacy that they