John Wesley Hall notes another search incident to arrest ruling, this one out of Tennessee:
Looking at defendant’s cell phone text messages was permitted by the search incident doctrine. United States v. Grooms, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10824 (E.D. Tenn. January 3, 2011)
John’s commentary:
[Note: This case follows, without out saying so, the rationale of the California Supreme Court in Diaz that pre-technology cases control. Look, if a court has to cite a search incident case from 1969 to justify a search incident of a 2010 cell phone, then that case is meaningless. Maybe the court knows it, but a USMJ without a creative spark to see the law developing should constrain his or her work to detention hearings and stay away from Fourth Amendment v. technology because it is moving so damn fast. I compare this case to the multitude of USMJs’ limiting the government for cell phone tracking information, and I wonder what this guy is thinking.]
Read his full entry on FourthAmendment.com