On the recordMay 20, 2015
I think one of the most exciting things probably is the court case--the Second Circuit Court of Appeals--and their ruling. My hope, though, had been that it would go to the Supreme Court. My understanding is it has been remanded to a lower court. I think one of the things that we really need is that we need a ruling that updates Maryland v. Smith. We need a ruling that talks about the fact that most people's records are being held in a virtual fashion. I think there needs to be a ruling that comes from the Court that acknowledges that you still retain a privacy interest in your records, even when they are being held outside of your house. The idea of old fashioned papers in your house--the concept is good, that we should protect that privacy. But I think also the concept technologically is that you know you will not have papers in your house, but you will have private matters that will be held virtually outside the house--and whether or not the Fourth Amendment protects those. You often have advocates from the government who say that the fourth amendment does not apply to any records once they are outside your house or in other hands. I really think that you do not give up your privacy interest when you let someone else hold your records, that you still maintain an interest in privacy even though someone else holds these records.
