Volokh Conspiracy: Search Warrants and Compelled Biometric Access to Phones

Volokh Conspiracy: Search Warrants and Compelled Biometric Access to Phones by Orin Kerr:
A new ruling, and some (mostly critical) thoughts.

Magistrate Judge Kandis Westmore of the U.S. District Court in Oakland, California, recently handed down an opinion denying a search warrant application because the prosecutors asked for a provision compelling everyone present to submit to a fingerprint or other biometric means of unlocking digital devices found there. According to Magistrate Judge Westmore, such a provision would violate the Fourth and Fifth Amendments.

Judge Westmore also ruled that it would be impermissible for the warrant to allow a seizure of all devices on the scene. In her view, the warrant can only authorize the seizure of devices “reasonably believed by law enforcement to be owned or controlled by the two suspects identified in the affidavit.”

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