101 Iowa L. Rev. 343 (2015)
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Abstract
This Essay takes up the question posed by the law of unintended consequences: whether and to what extent the rule of Riley affects a student's right to privacy in the contents of a cell phone. The interplay of Riley and T.L.O. is inevitable; a study estimates that 77% of teenagers take their phones with them to campus every school day. Student possession of these devices place juveniles at risk of searches and seizures, and at least 65% of public schools have codes of conduct that prohibit possession and/or use of cell phones. The Riley-T.L.O. interplay raises two principal questions: (1) does the higher-order privacy interest of citizens in the digital contents of cell phones and smart devices apply to students in the school setting?; and (2) if yes, then what rules apply when school discipline involves a search and seizure of the digital contents of a cell phone? The law in Riley veers off from its initial criminal-procedure context to prompt singular changes in privacy law. Riley and T.L.O. are reconcilable, but only in a framework that allows educators to maintain discipline while allowing for the emerging higher-order privacy interest of students in their smart devices. The guiding principle going forward is grounded in both logic and rule of law by carefully applying the decision of the Court from another higher-order privacy case -- the strip search decision of Safford Unified School District #1 v. Redding. Hence, the expectation of privacy students possess in the digital contents of their cell phones after Riley is now at least equal to the higher-order privacy interest that prohibits strip searches by educators without additional justification. Despite this increased rigor, the most unanticipated consequence of Riley is the modest practical constraint on school disciplinary policies. When the fundamentals of school discipline and the educators' duty to protect students are properly accounted for, the increase in student autonomy is not as much as one might imagine at the outset.