The Fourth Amendment in the Digital Age

Overview

In this episode, we sit down with Prof. Sarah Chen and Judge Marcus Webb to discuss how the Fourth Amendment applies to modern digital life — from unlocking your phone at a border crossing to law enforcement accessing years of location data stored in the cloud.

Topics Covered

• The Carpenter v. United States decision and its ripple effects
• Warrantless searches of devices at the border
• Cloud storage and third-party doctrine
• What "reasonable expectation of privacy" means in 2026

Guest Bios

Prof. Sarah Chen is a constitutional law scholar at Georgetown University Law Center, specializing in digital privacy and surveillance law.

Judge Marcus Webb serves on the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California and has presided over several landmark digital search cases.

Resources

• Carpenter v. United States (2018)
• Fourth Amendment Center — Digital Privacy Guide