re: 9th Circuit rules Cops can force you to use fingerprint to unlock phone

FFS, would you use some critical thinking/reasoning and stop posting reactionary bullshite? This ruling doesn't mean police can make you unlock your phone without a warrant, including using your thumbprint to do it.

Here's the context of the ruling.

The dude was on parole and a condition of his parole was that he produce any electronic device within his control and the pass key (in this case, his thumbprint...the "biometric identifier" was probably not a thing when that language was written). General/suspicionless search was part of his parole.

The only ambiguity is that when it was originally written up, pass key/codes were used to unlock phones, so that was the language used. He challenged it based on a technicality, that his thumbprint isn't a "pass code"...and the court said, "sure it is."

quote:

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The Fourth Amendment dispute involved a special search condition in Payne's parole "requiring him to surrender any electronic device and provide a pass key or code, but not requiring him to provide a biometric identifier to unlock the device," the ruling said.

Despite that parole condition, "the search was authorized under a general search condition, mandated by California law, allowing the suspicionless search of any property under Payne's control," the ruling said.

"Moreover, we hold that any ambiguity created by the inclusion of the special condition, when factored into the totality of the circumstances, did not increase Payne's expectation of privacy in his cell phone to render the search unreasonable under the Fourth Amendment," the panel wrote.

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