Fifth Amendment Protects Smartphone Pass Codes, Federal Court Rules
The government cannot force someone to hand over a smartphone pass code, as that is protected under the Fifth Amendment, the U.S. District Court in Philadelphia ruled Wednesday. The case came about after the SEC, while investigating two men for…
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Timely, relevant coverage of court proceedings and agency rulings involving tariffs, classification, valuation, origin and antidumping and countervailing duties. Each day, Trade Law Daily subscribers receive a daily headline email, in-depth PDF edition and access to all relevant documents via our trade law source document library and website.
insider trading, asked the defendants for their company-provided smartphone pass codes. The defendants refused to hand their pass codes over, invoking their Fifth Amendment right. The SEC asked the court for an order to compel the defendants to give up the codes. Since the SEC cannot show with "reasonable particularity" the documents it seeks exist on the pass code-protected phones, the court denied the motion to compel, the ruling said. The SEC declined to comment Thursday.