Congrats to Prof. Kerr for getting cited twice (at least?) in this opinion.
If you read one Supreme Court opinion this year, read pages 15-25 of this one,[1] particularly the discussion of data accessible on cloud services on page 21. There is a lot in there that HN readers will nod along to, and I think should clearly dispel the notion that this Court doesn't understand the issues implicated by these sorts of cases. This is not an opinion that takes a narrow approach to 4th amendment interpretation.
There's a lot that can be quoted here, but I'll single out one: your documents in the cloud are your "papers and effects" for the purposes of the 4th amendment. Slip. Op. at 22. It will be really interesting to see how the Court reconciles this with the Third Party doctrine, when that issue comes up.
If you read one Supreme Court opinion this year, read pages 15-25 of this one,[1] particularly the discussion of data accessible on cloud services on page 21. There is a lot in there that HN readers will nod along to, and I think should clearly dispel the notion that this Court doesn't understand the issues implicated by these sorts of cases. This is not an opinion that takes a narrow approach to 4th amendment interpretation.
There's a lot that can be quoted here, but I'll single out one: your documents in the cloud are your "papers and effects" for the purposes of the 4th amendment. Slip. Op. at 22. It will be really interesting to see how the Court reconciles this with the Third Party doctrine, when that issue comes up.
[1] http://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/13pdf/13-132_8l9c.pdf