Page:United States v. Morton (19-10842) (2021) Opinion.pdf/5

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found in the place to be searched for there to be probable cause. Safford Unified Sch. Dist. No. 1 v. Redding, 557 U.S. 364, 371 (2009) (cleaned up).

Here, as suggested by this court’s precedent, we turn to Trooper Blue’s affidavits supporting the search warrants. The affidavits seek approval to search Morton’s contacts, call logs, text messages, and photographs for evidence of his drug possession crimes. As the government properly conceded at oral argument,^[1] separate probable cause is required to search each of the categories of information found on the cellphones. Although “[t]reating a cell phone as a container … is a bit strained,” the Supreme Court has explained that cellphones do “collect[] in one place many distinct types of information.” Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373, 394, 397 (2014). And the Court’s opinion in Riley went to great lengths to explain the range of possible types of information contained on cellphones.^[2]

Riley made clear that these distinct types of information, often stored in different components of the phone, should be analyzed separately. This requirement is imposed because “a cell phone’s capacity allows even just one

↑ Oral Argument at 27:28, United States v. Morton, No. 19-10842, http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/OralArgRecordings/19/19-10842_10-5-2020.mp3:

The Court: Do you say you’re entitled to everything inside that phone so long as you can look at anything inside the phone?
The Government: No, your Honor.
The Court: Or do you need probable cause for each individual sort of category of information that could be found there?
The Government: That’s correct.
↑ See id. at 393 (emphasizing that the term “cellphone” is “misleading shorthand” because cellphones are in fact minicomputers that also can serve as “cameras, video players, rolodexes, calendars, tape recorders, libraries, diaries, albums, televisions, maps, or newspapers”); id. at 394 (noting that “[e]ven the most basic phones” might hold photographs, messages, a calendar, a phone book, “and so on”); id. at 396 (describing all of the possible apps as a “range of tools for managing detailed information”).

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[1] Oral Argument at 27:28, United States v. Morton, No. 19-10842, http://www.ca5.uscourts.gov/OralArgRecordings/19/19-10842_10-5-2020.mp3:

The Court: Do you say you’re entitled to everything inside that phone so long as you can look at anything inside the phone?
The Government: No, your Honor.
The Court: Or do you need probable cause for each individual sort of category of information that could be found there?
The Government: That’s correct.

[2] See id. at 393 (emphasizing that the term “cellphone” is “misleading shorthand” because cellphones are in fact minicomputers that also can serve as “cameras, video players, rolodexes, calendars, tape recorders, libraries, diaries, albums, televisions, maps, or newspapers”); id. at 394 (noting that “[e]ven the most basic phones” might hold photographs, messages, a calendar, a phone book, “and so on”); id. at 396 (describing all of the possible apps as a “range of tools for managing detailed information”).

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