Cell Phone EPIC Amicus Filing Carpenter Location Privacy United States v. Carpenter
EPIC Urges Supreme Court to Apply Constitution to Cell Phone Data
EPIC has filed a “friend-of-the-court” brief in Carpenter v. United States concerning the Fourth Amendment and location data. EPIC urged the Supreme Court to reject a 1970s case, Smith v. Maryland (1979), that allows for the warrantless collection of calling data. As EPIC told the Court, that case is from an era “when rotary phones sat on desk tops” and was decided before cell phones and location tracking. EPIC argued that "Cell phones are now as necessary to the life of Americans as they are ubiquitous.” EPIC urged the Court to extend Constitutional protection to cell phone data. Noting that Congress may also pass important privacy laws, EPIC wrote that the Supreme Court “remains the interpreter of the Fourth Amendment in our modern age." EPIC previously argued against warrantless searches of location data in Riley v. California, United States v. Jones, State v. Earls, and Commonwealth v. Connolly.
August 14, 2017| Share:
