WaPo (Opinion): The Supreme Court’s privacy precedent is outdated

WaPo (Opinion): The Supreme Court’s privacy precedent is outdated by Stephen H. Sachs:
(Stephen H. Sachs was Maryland attorney general from 1979 to 1987.)

The Supreme Court will hear arguments this Wednesday in Carpenter v. United States, a criminal case testing the scope of the Fourth Amendment’s right to privacy in the digital age. The government seeks to uphold Timothy Carpenter’s conviction and will rely, as did the lower court, on the court’s 1979 decision in Smith v. Maryland, a case I know well.

I argued and won Smith v. Maryland when I was Maryland’s attorney general. I believe it was correctly decided. But I also believe it has long since outlived its suitability as precedent.