Washington • Timothy Carpenter’s interest in smartphones has had two unintended consequences. It has drawn the Supreme Court deeper into ongoing debates about applying the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment to uses of digital technologies that have swiftly — the first iPhone was sold in 2007; today there are 396 million American cellphone service accounts — become integral to daily life. And the disagreement between Chief Justice John Roberts, who wrote the court’s decision disapproving how law enforcement convicted Carpenter, and Justice Clarence Thomas, the court’s implacable “originalist,” has illuminated an argument about how properly to construe the Constitution.
George F. Will: The Fourth Amendment enters the 21st century
