Fourth Amendment Protection in Text Messages

Orin Kerr — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:56:00 GMT

The 9th Circuit handed down a very important decision today in Quon v. Arch Wireless Operating Co. holding that users of text-messaging services ordinarily have a Fourth Amendment reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of the text messages stored on the service provider's network. Judge Wardlaw wrote the opinion, joined by Judge Pregerson and District Judge Ronald Leighton. It's a bit of a surprise that the panel decided the issue so squarely, given that it was only lightly covered at oral argument, but it's a noteworthy holding that I think is correct and very important.

(continued over at the Volokh Conspiracy)

Yes, Marty ...

Diane Marie Amann — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:30:00 GMT

... there is a Republican core to yesterday's California marriage decision. Not only were three of the four justices in the majority Republican appointees, but they were appointed by either George Deukmejian or Pete Wilson, GOP governors not known for liberal tendencies. (The sole appointee of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was among the three justices, all Republicans, in dissent.)

It should also be noted that all seven have stood election since their appointments. Voters reconfirmed all of them, by margins of 69 percent or higher. That this court voted as it did knowing it must seek ballot approval now and again is nothing to sniff at—this is the same electorate that in 1986 recalled the state chief justice and two associate justices, following a campaign waged by Deukmejian.

Though it is tempting to suggest that the Grand, Old Party is returning to a tradition of privacy vis-à-vis the state—let's not forget that Republican appointees represented five of the seven U.S. Supreme Court Justices in the majority in Roe v. Wade (1973)—it may be premature to make such a claim. Perhaps the ruling says more about "living constitutionalism." Might it be that changes in popular attitudes toward marriage equality helped to embolden four California justices to enforce a rule that seemed to them compelled by proper interpretation of the applicable law, California's Constitution?

Convictions : privacy

Fourth Amendment Protection in Text Messages

Yes, Marty ...