The Legal Aid Society filed this amicus brief at the New York Court of Appeals in support of Mr. Blue and all New Yorkers’ right to be protected from unlawful search by the police. At issue in the case was whether law enforcement may initiate a search warrant for a cell phone beyond the ten-day time period codified in statute which safeguards the rights of New Yorkers from unreasonable searches and seizures. In Mr. Blue’s case, the First Department created a dangerous loophole to the application of Article 690 of the New York Criminal Procedure Law by ruling that when a search warrant for a cell phone includes “deemed executed at the time of issuance” language, it is simultaneously executed without the need for any law enforcement action. Its ruling renders the CPL’s timeliness protection meaningless for cell phones already in the custody of the police, giving law enforcement a free pass to wait weeks, months, or even years before searching a phone’s digital contents. Legal Aid argued that this exception to the CPL’s time limit on search warrants removes a key protection against unreasonable searches for everyday New Yorkers.

In November 2024, the Court of Appeals issued a decision that did not address Mr. Blue’s legal challenge to the search of his cell phone, holding the issue unpreserved for appellate review.