Seen on FourthAmendment.com:
Defendant fled a taxicab to avoid the fare but left his cell phone behind. The police used the phone to call 911 to capture his name, phone number, and other 911 information. This wasn’t a search, and it was governed by Smith, that information voluntarily turned over to another is not protected by a reasonable expectation of privacy. [The complete answer to that is that defendant didn’t turn over the information voluntarily; the police dialed 911 to make the call, and was that a seizure? The court botches this one by deciding it this way. Abandonment of the phone wasn’t even decided, and it clearly was the easier and more logical argument than attempting say there was a lack of a reasonable expectation of privacy without having to strain to make something up to sound profound.] State v. Hill, 2016 Ga. App. LEXIS 432 (July 13, 2016)
Read more on FourthAmendment.com, via Joe Cadillic.
And while we’re on the Fourth Amendment, do note this development in Congress, which I’m actually happy about: The Fourth Amendment Gets Its Own House Caucus to Demand Its Respect.