Monday, June 22, 2020

Has Anyone Heard This about Search Warrants in Utah?

Utah now has the strongest protection of your private data, including cell phone contents, by requiring police to get a search warrant before access. Law enforcement fought HB57 but lost to the Constitutional protections of the 4th Amendment. ⁃ TN Editor

Specifically, HB0057 does the following:
  • Requires the issuance of a search warrant to obtain certain electronic information or data.
  • Necessitates that when someone’s electronic data or information has been obtained there will be notification.
  • Declares that electronic information and data obtained without a warrant be excluded from consideration in legal cases.
  • “Electronic information and data” was defined as being any information or data including a sign, signal, writing, image, sound, or intelligence of any nature transmitted or stored in whole or in part by a wire, radio, electromagnetic, photoelectronic, or photo optical system. The definition includes location information, stored data, and transmitted data of an electronic device
I have never understood why so many people think search warrants are not required for things like your phone, etc. Seems to me like the amendment that requires search warrants is explicit. Here is the text of the 4th amendment of the Bill of Rights:

Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
Seems to be quite clear to me: persons, houses, papers, and effects. Is not my phone an effect of mine? 




















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