Warrantless Searches - Cryptocurrency

Every day, millions of Americans engage in digital transactions through third-party platforms. We purchase stocks online, buy goods on Amazon, and pay the babysitter on Venmo. Can the IRS get your financial information without a search warrant? Under the “third-party doctrine” it can. That’s because, according to the United States Supreme Court, you don’t have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the things you share with someone else. At KJI, we don’t think that’s right. Sharing sensitive and confidential information with others—through email, apps, and so on—shouldn’t mean you surrender your Fourth Amendment rights.

So, Kansas Justice Institute teamed up with our friends at Goldwater Institute and American Dream Legal to file a brief in the United States Supreme Court urging the justices to consider how state supreme courts have addressed the issue. A number of state courts have rejected the third-party doctrine under their state constitutions, after all.

The brief was filed in a lawsuit called Harper v. O’Donnell. Mr. Harper was one of 14,355 Coinbase account holders—spanning 8.9 million transactions—whose digital financial records were seized by the IRS without a warrant.