Cybercrime and the Fourth Amendment

The constitutional protections afforded by the Fourth Amendment related to cybercrimes are no different than Fourth Amendment litigation involving a car, a house or any other private possession, but the application of these protections is evolving because of the nature of digital storage devices. People have become dependent on gadgets, and each gadget is an item protected by the Fourth Amendment. Practitioners should seek protections to ensure that the government does not use a search of a digital device as a fishing expedition to find evidence about unknown crimes. The government should not be able to rely on the good faith exception to justify an over-expansive and intrusive search. Marcia Shein outlines the considerations a defense attorney should keep in mind when involved in Fourth Amendment litigation having to do with digital evidence.