The Search for a Limited Search: The First Circuit Denies the Search of Cell Phones Incident to Arrest in United States v. Wurie

Abstract

On May 17, 2013, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in United States v. Wurie held that the warrantless search of a cell phone was not justified by the search-incident-to-arrest exception to the Fourth Amendment and was thus an illegal search. In doing so, the court declined to agree with other federal appeals court solutions regarding this issue; most notably, the Fifth Circuit’s 2007 decision in United States v. Finley and the Seventh Circuit’s 2012 decision in United States v. Flores-Lopez. This Comment argues that the approaches taken by courts on both sides of the issue have severe vulnerabilities. It also posits that, on review, the U.S. Supreme Court should adopt a test that limits the police search to information that can be found on the phone without accessing the internet. By drawing a line regarding the searchable information in a phone, this test provides a more effective method of balancing the various concerns this issue raises.