US Supreme Court Clarifies Law On Warrantless Cell Phone Searches. Will The Supreme Court Of Canada Follow?

Lower courts in both Canada and the US have been deeply divided on the application of their respective Supreme Courts' precedents on whether the police need a warrant to search the contents of a smart/cell phone seized during a lawful arrest. On June 25, 2014, the US Supreme Court unanimously settled US law in Riley v. California, No. 13-132. The court found that privacy interests at stake outweigh any legitimate governmental interest, absent any "exigent circumstances".

The Fourth Amendment of the US Constitution provides protection against unreasonable search. A common law exception to the protection under the Amendment is where the search is incident to a lawful arrest.

The Supreme Court assessed, on the one hand, the degree to which the search is needed to promote legitimate governmental interests and, on the other, the degree to which it intrudes upon an individual's privacy. Writing for the Court, Chief Justice Roberts concluded that the warrantless search of a cell phone, even incident to a lawful arrest, is prima facie unreasonable and, therefore, contravenes the Fourth Amendment for two main reasons:

Digital data does not present any risks to the legitimate governmental interests...