In civil and criminal matters, practitioners are confronted with vast amounts of electronic data produced by cellphones that are in constant contact with cell towers, cloud services, and cellphone providers. Recently, however, under Carpenter v. United States, data shared with third parties has received some protection, writes Scott Pyles in his November Illinois Bar Journal article, “Building Up the Fourth Amendment.” Pyles’ analysis of Carpenter leads him recommend that practitioners should be challenging the use of this type of data as evidence when obtained without a warrant. That said, while Illinois courts have followed the holding of Carpenter, it appears that in searches occurring prior to Carpenter, Illinois courts have applied the good-faith exception and have not suppressed the evidence recovered from those searches.

Read the November Illinois Bar Journal’s article, “Building Up the Fourth Amendment.”