The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is suing...
The American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California is suing the city and county of San Francisco and San Francisco Police Chief Greg Suhr to block cellphone searches conducted without a warrant. The group filed the lawsuit Wednesday in the…
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Superior Court of California in San Francisco (http://bit.ly/100xLzs), describing in detail the nature of cellphones and their legal status. “The California Constitution and First Amendment of the United States Constitution also safeguard the rights of free speech and free association against governmental interference in particular against the compelled disclosure of speech and associational information,” the lawsuit said. The complaint asks the court to stop the San Francisco police from conducting warrantless cellphone searches -- “their policy and practice” -- and to declare that such searches violate a right to privacy. In a press release (http://bit.ly/100xLzs), the ACLU said it’s representing civil rights activist Bob Offer-Westort, whose cellphone was searched without a warrant in January after he engaged in what the ACLU termed “non-violent civil disobedience.” “Police need a warrant to search our home office,” said Pillsbury Winthrop attorney Marley Degner in a statement. “Our cell phones should be treated the same way.” That firm is handling the case pro bono, the ACLU said. It notes that it’s the first challenge to the California practice, which the California Supreme Court upheld relative to the U.S. Constitution’s Fourth Amendment in the 2011 People v. Diaz case. “This suit brings a challenge under the California Constitution’s stronger guarantees of privacy and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, as well as a challenge under the U.S. and California Constitutions’ guarantees of freedom of speech and association,” the ACLU said of the current challenge. The San Francisco Police Department said it doesn’t comment on civil suits.