"That leeway has drawn criticism from academics and civil-liberties advocates. Elizabeth Joh, a University of California, Davis, law professor, said the doctrine is one of two major Fourth Amendment issues that “really calls out for reconsideration.” (The other, she said, is the border-search exception, which lowers Fourth Amendment protections at or near ports of entry.) Both of the main Supreme Court decisions upon which the third-party doctrine is built date back to the 1970s, when telecommunications technology was far less advanced.
“The real issue is: Does it make sense to keep applying these pre-digital-era cases to a totally different context?” Joh asked."
- Date Published:05/21/2017
- Original Publication:The Atlantic