Supremes Mull Whether Bad Databases Make for Illegal Searches
If a false entry in a database leads to a unconstitutional police search that reveals illegal drugs, does the government get to hold it against you?
That’s the question the Supreme Court will tackle on Tuesday in a case civil liberties groups such as the Electronic Privacy Information Center argue will have broad implications in a world where we are constantly being evaluated against databases and watch lists that are riddled with frustratingly persistent errors.
“In these interlinked databases, one error can spread like a disease, infecting every system it touches and condemning the individual to whom this error refers to suffer substantial delay, harassment, and improper arrest,” EPIC director Marc Rotenberg argued in a friend of the court brief.
Not surprisingly, the government disagrees.
