Is the Storing of Metadata by the United States Government a Search in Violation of the 4th Amendment?

-- By DavidHammond - 02 Mar 2017

Introduction What if I had a magic ball that sucked up every spoken conversation, written correspondence or activity anyone ever engaged in? What if my magic ball had unlimited storage capacity and an ability to quickly sift through the information to tell me anything I wanted to know? What if the magic ball were in the hands of the government?

In the digital age, protection of individual autonomy hinges on how the Supreme Court defines search. Metadata presents a layer of complexity not yet directly reviewed by our nation’s highest court. If US policy is to capture all electronic data but not review it, has there been a search? Supreme Court jurisprudence from US v. Weeks until present has attempted to put searches in a tidy box with neatly defined parameters: a quest for evidence by a government agent, where a reasonable expectation of privacy exists. This essay will attempt to lay out a framework for a Constitutional review of metadata.

I. US Metadata Policy

Subsection A

Subsub 1

Subsection B

Subsub 1

Subsub 2

Section II. SC Search and Seizure Jurisprudence

Subsection A

Subsection B

Section III. If Deemed Constitutional, Is it Good Policy?

Subsection A

Subsection B

Conclusion

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