The California Supreme Court ruled Monday that a person who has been arrested can have their phones searched and the evidence used against them in court... without the need for a search warrant.

Think you're safe if your phone has a passcode? Think again. Mobile Phone Examiner Plus, available on a portable tablet, "can unlock locked phones and give law enforcement instant access to the call history, contacts, text messages, photos, voice recordings, video files, calendar entries, tasks, notes, address book, Web browsing history, chat logs, data stored in applications (including social media applications), search history and any data from location-enabled services or applications--allowing police to construct an arrestee's past whereabouts and activities." -http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20110107006085/en/Arresting-Officers-Search-Cell-Phones-Scene-Tools

Enough is enough... that is totally and completely f**ked up!!!

Here's the thread from the legal corner

and whether it allows search beyond the text message folder.
All the court held is that the 4th amendment permits the police incident to arrest "to conduct a warrantless search of the text message folder of a cell phone."

        But if you have an I phone where you can get email over your phone, can they search your email as well as all web sites you have browsed?  The dissent points out that this is the natural extention of the ruling.

      That would seem to be completely unjustified by the usual rationale of the search incident to arrest exception - viz, to find weapons or prevent destruction of evidence. But you can bet the police will this do this until the Supreme Court tells them otherwise.

massive bodies at the airport.
 
Here's a good trick. Don't get busted and you won't have to worry about your cell phones.
Everyone can simply lock their cell phones. LE cannot force the password/pass code out of you.

BTW, it's probable cause, not very little cause.

First graphic scans of our body or a good groping at the airport, and now if they arrest you they get to search your cell phone without a warrant. To top it off they can arrest you with very little cause. There goes the fourth amendment. Screening is becoming even more important.

People pay well to see it.

As for passwords they can be overwritten by LE and password provide no protection at all. Now probable cause is easy to come up with they don't need enough evidence to go to trial just enough to suspect you. If they don't have enough to charge you they have to release you after a set amount of time that varies from state to state.

I think that this will be going before the US Supreme Court.  
Somewhere a civil rights lawyer will be wanting to file an appeal on this one.

Law enforcement can seize your communications under CALEA since 1994:

The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) is a United States wiretapping law passed in 1994, during the presidency of Bill Clinton (Pub. L. No. 103-414, 108 Stat. 4279, codified at 47 USC 1001-1010). In its own words, the purpose of CALEA is:
To amend title 18, United States Code, to make clear a telecommunications carrier's duty to cooperate in the interception of communications for Law Enforcement purposes, and for other purposes.
CALEA's purpose is to enhance the ability of law enforcement and intelligence agencies to conduct electronic surveillance by requiring that telecommunications carriers and manufacturers of telecommunications equipment modify and design their equipment, facilities, and services to ensure that they have built-in surveillance capabilities, allowing federal agencies to monitor all telephone, broadband internet, and VoIP traffic in real-time.
The original reason for adopting CALEA was the Federal Bureau of Investigation's worry that increasing use of digital telephone exchange switches would make tapping phones at the phone company's central office harder and slower to execute, or in some cases impossible. Since the original requirement to add CALEA-compliant interfaces required phone companies to modify or replace hardware and software in their systems, U.S. Congress included funding for a limited time period to cover such network upgrades. CALEA was passed into law on October 25, 1994 and came into force on January 1, 1995.
In the years since CALEA was passed it has been greatly expanded to include all VoIP and broadband internet traffic. From 2004 to 2007 there was a 62 percent growth in the number of wiretaps performed under CALEA -- and more than 3,000 percent growth in interception of internet data such as email.[1]
By 2007, the FBI had spent $39 million on its DCSNet system, which collects, stores, indexes, and analyzes communications data.[1]