In a sweeping victory for civil liberties, the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled 6-3 in favor of robust digital privacy rights, strictly limiting the ability of law enforcement to conduct warrantless searches of seized smartphones. The landmark decision updates Fourth Amendment protections for the modern digital age.

Privacy advocates are hailing the ruling as the most significant digital rights decision in a generation. While law enforcement agencies express concern over operational delays, legal scholars agree that the ruling firmly establishes that digital data is fundamentally different from physical evidence.