Jacquot Comments on Future of Privacy Rights Under Newly Constituted Supreme Court

Partner Joe Jacquot was quoted in a Law360 article, “Justice Kennedy’s Departure Leaves Privacy Limits Up In Air,” about the possible impact of Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement on the Supreme Court’s future Fourth Amendment jurisprudence.

Jacquot said that Chief Justice John Roberts, who provided the deciding vote in the court’s 5-4 ruling last month in Carpenter v. U.S., which held that the Fourth Amendment’s privacy protections extend to historical cell phone location records maintained by third-party service providers, may prove to be the crucial swing vote in digital privacy cases that hinge on the court’s prior precedence.

“We saw in the Carpenter decision that the chief justice was on the other side touting the role of stare decisis on a major policy issue,” he said. “Outside of even the confirmation process, there’s going to be a whole discussion about what is the new role for Roberts as chief justice with this newly constituted court that we expect is going to be very interesting, especially from a privacy perspective.”