The Digital Fourth Amendment
Privacy and Policing in Our Online World
Published on 24. April 2025
Book
Hardback
264 pages
978-0-19-062707-2 (ISBN)
Description
When can the government read your email or monitor your web surfing? When can the police search your phone or copy your computer files? In the United States, the answers come from the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution and its ban on 'unreasonable searches and seizures.'
The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online World takes the reader inside the legal world of how courts are interpreting the Fourth Amendment in the digital age. Computers, smartphones, and the Internet have transformed criminal investigations, and even a routine crime is likely to lead to digital evidence. But courts are struggling to apply old Fourth Amendment concepts to the new digital world. Mechanically applying old rules from physical investigations doesn't make sense, as it often leads to dramatic expansions of government power just based on coincidences of computer design.
Written by a prominent law professor whose scholarship has often been relied on by courts in the field, The Digital Fourth Amendment shows how judges must craft new rules for the new world of digital evidence. It explains the challenges courts confront as they translate old protections to a new technological world, bringing the reader up to date on the latest cases and rulings. Informed by legal history and the latest technology, this book gives courts a blueprint for legal change with clear rules for courts to adopt to restore our constitutional rights in the computer age.
The Digital Fourth Amendment: Privacy and Policing in Our Online World takes the reader inside the legal world of how courts are interpreting the Fourth Amendment in the digital age. Computers, smartphones, and the Internet have transformed criminal investigations, and even a routine crime is likely to lead to digital evidence. But courts are struggling to apply old Fourth Amendment concepts to the new digital world. Mechanically applying old rules from physical investigations doesn't make sense, as it often leads to dramatic expansions of government power just based on coincidences of computer design.
Written by a prominent law professor whose scholarship has often been relied on by courts in the field, The Digital Fourth Amendment shows how judges must craft new rules for the new world of digital evidence. It explains the challenges courts confront as they translate old protections to a new technological world, bringing the reader up to date on the latest cases and rulings. Informed by legal history and the latest technology, this book gives courts a blueprint for legal change with clear rules for courts to adopt to restore our constitutional rights in the computer age.
Reviews / Votes
Orin Kerr is the nation's leading expert on how to safeguard the Constitution's guarantee of individual rights in a world of technological change unimaginable to the Framers. Everyone from journalists to Supreme Court justices turn to Kerr for clear-eyed, even-handed analysis, and this thoughtful book shows why. The Digital Fourth Amendment is a call to action for the Supreme Court to protect the Constitution's guarantee of individual privacy. I expect this incisive guide will be invaluable to the justices as they chart the path forward. - Robert Barnes, former Supreme Court reporter for The Washington Post Orin Kerr is the law professor you wish you'd had-whether you're a lawyer or not. His case to update our search and seizure laws in the era of iPhones and Snapchat is an illuminating and fun ride for nerds of all stripes! - Sarah Isgur, ABC News legal analyst and host of Advisory Opinions Kerr is the most thoughtful and thought-provoking thinker we have about the Fourth Amendment. In clear and accessible language for non-lawyers, Kerr explains the notoriously uneven road the Supreme Court has travelled, and offers lucid ways out of the thicket caused by the digital revolution resulting in our most personal information being in the hands of big tech companies. - Andrew Weissmann, MSNBC legal analyst and former General Counsel of the Federal Bureau of Investigation Ensuring that the law remains relevant in the face of rapidly changing technology is a complex and critically important topic-and this is especially true when it comes to the Fourth Amendment. In his insightful and nuanced new book, Orin Kerr, a preeminent scholar of this crucial constitutional provision, articulates a powerful, ultimately optimistic vision for maintaining the vitality of the Fourth Amendment in the digital age. - David Lat, founder of Original Jurisdiction The final chapter on digital surveillance and data brokers and how they are able to act under the Fourth Amendment is a must read for any criminal law scholar and practitioner. * J. M. Keller-Aschenbach, Choice *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 166 mm
Width: 242 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
532 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-19-062707-2 (9780190627072)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
12/2024
OUP eBook
€24.99
Available for download
E-Book
12/2024
OUP eBook
€24.99
Available for download
Person
Orin Kerr is the William G. Simon Professor at the University of California, Berkeley Law School. Widely considered the leading scholar of the Fourth Amendment of his generation, Kerr has been cited by courts over 400 times, including in several major Supreme Court cases, and he regularly appears in lists of the most influential and most cited law professors. Kerr's scholarship and advocacy have been widely profiled and his writing has appeared in publications such as The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal.
Before becoming a law professor, Kerr was a computer crime prosecutor at the United States Department of Justice. He has engineering degrees from Princeton and Stanford and a law degree from Harvard Law School. He is a former law clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court.
Before becoming a law professor, Kerr was a computer crime prosecutor at the United States Department of Justice. He has engineering degrees from Princeton and Stanford and a law degree from Harvard Law School. He is a former law clerk for Justice Anthony M. Kennedy of the United States Supreme Court.
Content
Introduction
Part I Foundations
1: The Physical Fourth Amendment
2: Digital Evidence
3: Equilibrium-Adjustment
4: The Digital Fourth Amendment
Part II Local Devices
5: Searches and Seizures
6: Warrants for Digital Evidence
7: Border Searches
Part III Networks
8: Enter the Internet
9: The Carpenter Adjustment
10: Surveillance Big and Small
11: Buying Data
Epilogue
Part I Foundations
1: The Physical Fourth Amendment
2: Digital Evidence
3: Equilibrium-Adjustment
4: The Digital Fourth Amendment
Part II Local Devices
5: Searches and Seizures
6: Warrants for Digital Evidence
7: Border Searches
Part III Networks
8: Enter the Internet
9: The Carpenter Adjustment
10: Surveillance Big and Small
11: Buying Data
Epilogue