Technology

We still think the repeal of prohibition is embarrassing. But no, rather than actually tell us what rights we have, there are a lot of menial carve-outs. Law enforcement is allowed to do whatever they want until someone argues overreach in court at which point a judge might specify a new precedent (which stays in effect until the legislature passes a new law).

So, for instance, for a while if the police wanted to get you, they'd search your phone for anything incriminating, on the presumption that was like finding drug paraphernalia or something on your person. A court had to reconsider that a person's entire lives are on their phone (including all violations of the CFAA, which everyone does), so peeking into someone's phone without cause is fishing for crime.

Now, if you're arrested, a warrant is required to search your phone (but in a lot of districts, they'll search your phone first and get a warrant later if they find anything a DA might find interesting). A current SCOTUS ruling says we are not required to unlock our phone on command (by password) though if they hack into it, or borrow your biometrics to get in then that's legit. iPhones 5 and before are easily crackable. After 6 might be secure from police but they routinely purchase state-of-the-art cracking software, and the public only gets to know when it comes out in a court case. So there's an ongoing arms race between smartphone developers and law enforcement.