California to allow warrant-less search of mobile phones

[Kevin]

I don't really buy that this will not be overturned on appeal. If you look at the cases allowing searches incident to an arrest without a warrant center around the safety of the officer. For example, the wingspan search, the ability of the officer to check the person of the suspect for weapons.

How the data on a mobile phone once the suspect is in custody and being questioned could be relevant to the safety of the officers is beyond me.

Lower court judges are notoriously pro-prosecution. In my experience, most are former Asst. District Attorneys (at least in Oklahoma, that seems to be the preferred career path).

The police have very clear rules and they all know them or should know them. In this case, a prosecutor was trying to save his case by making a creative argument. For whatever reason, the lower court judge upheld it. I'm not sure about the precedential value of Superior Court judges in California, but I imagine they're probably not.

At this point, I wouldn't worry too much.