Cellphone search without a warrant? #tellusatoday

Should police search cellphones without a warrant? The Supreme Court heard arguments this week in cases raising this issue. Comments from Twitter and Facebook are edited for clarity and grammar:

A smartphone is a computer with phone features. It needs to be treated as a computer. Get a warrant.

— @bobfireman

Absolutely not! Phones are private property and subject to search-and-seizure laws. That includes metadata.

— @jwodell11

A new rule needs to be created based solely on cellphones. This case is different from other searches.

— @amresendez

We will see how much closer this country comes to a police state after the rulings.

— @lsowers43

Let's say authorities suspect individuals of being terrorists and maybe conspiring to plant a bomb. Should they hold the suspects while they apply for a warrant to search cellphones? Or let them go and hope to find them again after a warrant is issued? We aren't talking about law-abiding citizens here.

Somewhere there is a balance between personal rights and public safety.

— Terry Mayer

It doesn't have to take long to apply for a search warrant. A "balance between personal rights and public safety" can be handled in our current system; there's no need to give law enforcement more power.

What's reasonable is that if police feel the need to search my cellphone (or car, or home), then they should get a search warrant and show a judge a good reason to do so.

— Kevin Roderick

For more discussions, follow @USATOpinion or #tellusatoday on Twitter.