First, the easy one: What should the Supreme Court do when a decades-old doctrine from the age of rotary-dial phones and Yellow Pages stops making sense in the face of rapid, unforeseen technological advances? Law enforcement authorities have access to a volume and specificity of citizens’ personal information they couldn’t have dreamed of 40 years ago. “The Supreme Court doesn’t have a scalpel to write those rules, but that’s what is needed,” Mr. Friedman said. A strong ruling in favor of Mr. Carpenter, Mr. Friedman said, could provide the impetus for a better federal law. Ruling against law enforcement will get them to move.”

Source: New York Times November 27, 2017 00:11 UTC