The Michigan Supreme Court ruled in People v. Carson that Fourth Amendment warrants for cell-phone and other digital-device searches must contain express limitations narrowing police review to data clearly connected to the crime. The court emphasized that modern phones hold vast, intimate information, requiring strict application of rules governing warrant scope. EFF and the ACLU filed an amicus brief urging limits to prevent warrants from becoming de facto licenses to access an individual's private life. In Carson, a broadly worded warrant allowed access to nearly everything on the phone, producing over 1,000 pages mostly unrelated to the alleged theft.
EFF, along with ACLU National and the ACLU of Michigan, filed an amicus brief in , expressly calling on the court to limit the scope of cell phone search warrants. We that the realities of modern cell phones call for a strict application of rules governing the scope of warrants. Without clear limits, warrants would become de facto licenses to look at everything on the device, a great universe of information that amounts to " the sum of an individual's private life ."
Any and all data including, text messages, text/picture messages, pictures and videos, address book, any data on the SIM card if applicable, and all records or documents which were created, modified, or stored in electronic or magnetic form and, any data, image, or information. There were no temporal or subject matter limitations. Consequently, investigators obtained over 1,000 pages of information from Mr. Carson's phone, the vast majority of which did not have anything to do with the crime under investigation.
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