Stanford CIS

Is Carpenter Unemployed? Carpenter v. United States One Year Later

By Riana Pfefferkorn on

Increasingly, we are incorporating into our daily lives devices and services that collect metadata: from our smartphones, to our web browsers, to an ever-expanding assortment of IoT-connected appliances, and even our cars. All of these generate metadata that is highly sensitive and revealing about us, even though it may not count as "content." In requiring a warrant for a week's worth of cell site location information, the Supreme Court's 2018 decision in Carpenter v. United States did not expressly encompass such other types of metadata. Yet they implicate the same sorts of inherent privacy risks, which suggests they are equally worthy of constitutional protection. Carpenter has been heralded as the most important Fourth Amendment opinion in years--but is it living up to its promise? This panel brings together a group of top Fourth Amendment experts to explore that question. CIS thanks the MacArthur Foundation for its support for the event.

Opening Remarks:
Hon. Stephen Wm. Smith (ret.), Director of Fourth Amendment and Open Courts, Stanford CIS

Panelists:
* Riana Pfefferkorn, Associate Director of Surveillance and Cybersecurity, Stanford CIS (moderator)
* David Gray, Jacob A. France Professor of Law, University of Maryland Carey School of Law
* Jumana Musa, Director, Fourth Amendment Center, National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
* Paul Ohm, Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
* Paul Rosenzweig, Senior Fellow, National Security & Cybersecurity, R Street Institute
* Marc Zwillinger, Founder and Managing Member, ZwillGen