You think I'm joking - there has been a baffling increase in the amount of "Russia had it better" posts around here lately.

I bet you could link to some of those posts to add impact to your statement, if you wanted to.

Which is why I'll never do a kickstarter- I'm not going to pay extra for early access to a product that I can't test and may never be made. I'd be willing to invest for a share of the profits, but not pay extra for a presale.

Because that is the trend. Courts are fighting back against creeping totalitarianism.

And obtaining a warrant is not that big of a deal.

The officers were investigating a domestic disturbance, which qualifies as an exigent circumstance under California law..

Had they merely walks out an met the officers on their porch nothing would have happened.

Yet the prevented the officers from doing what the law required them to do.

Don't like that law, then get the law changed, and watch more monsters beat their wives while forbidding the police to enter.

The people you elected voted for that law, principally to protect women. If a vote were held today on that issue
it would pass again, easily, because women voters outnumber men, and Ariel Castro has taught us all a lesson
of what an unrestricted right to privacy in your home can bring.

Powered off is all you need. You have plenty of time to obtain a warrant on a powered off phone.
Airplane mode is all you really need.
Also please cite even one case where a co-conspirator wiped a phone in police custody.

Very perceptive that highly evolved alien life forms would dig Bill Evans, since he was one of them.

You must live in Seattle.

Oh, don't worry, there are a plenty of other reasons that will be pushed to the front even if every drug on the planet were legalized.

We have the war on terror (where mere possession of a piece of wire makes you guilty of possession of bomb making materials)
We have the war on child porn (where picks of your kids first bath makes you a child pornoghrapher)
We have the war on sex crimes (where taking a wiz in an alley after too many beers makes you a sexual predator)

Police were busting down doors without warrants long before there was a drug trade.

Records are one thing, (and the Justice Department had a warrant), but your secret stuff in your phone is quite another.
You expect your phone records to be less protected, because you entrust them to a phone company.

Almost certain to be ultimately upheld on appeal.

Unless they are in hot pursuit, they will not kick down your door without a warrant.

With a warrant, they will use the City Key to open your door, especially if the warrant specifies flushable drugs.

Please don't post when drunk, M'kay?

But in most jurisdictions, if they had taken his car while making the arrest, they would have had to get a search warrant before they started digging around in the car.
It seems only proper that they get a warrant for the phone. If it makes as much sense as you seem to imply, they would have no problem getting the warrant.

Unless they suspect there evidence in the car, they don't automatically have a valid reason to search it. Even if they believe there may be a trunk full of drugs, most police agencies will get the warrant just to be sure it stands up in court, because "suspecting there is evidence" has been found to be just too big of a loop-hole and has been so often abused that it is routinely thrown out. In fact in some jurisdictions, if they seize the car/phone, all emergency situations cease at that point and there is no longer exigent circumstance to search for drugs. Bombs, maybe, but drugs or cell phone data, not so much.

See: http://www.aclu.org/drug-law-reform-immigrants-rights-racial-justice/know-your-rights-what-do-if-you

As for "having him on Drug sales", I fail to see why that makes a difference. They already had is phone too. He wasn't going to be given a chance to wipe it.

It's a good idea because magstrips are easy to erase and contacts are easy to destroy. It's unfortunate that this implementation is so crap, but that doesn't invalidate the concept.

Thanks for the heads-up! I will, in fact, wait. (I am getting an Ouya for the living room, but that's something else...)