Cost-Benefit Analysis and the Digital Fourth Amendment
40 Criminal Justice Ethics 75 (2021) Final version at https://doi.org/10.1080/0731129X.2021.1899535
10 Pages Posted: 1 Apr 2021 Last revised: 25 May 2021
Date Written: March 10, 2021
Abstract
Review of Ric Simmons, Smart Surveillance: How to Interpret the Fourth Amendment in the Twenty-First Century (2019).
In "Smart Surveillance," Ric Simmons argues for the application of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) to digital surveillance. This review argues that, although Simmons is right to look to CBA as a tool for applying the Fourth Amendment to new technology, his faith in the courts as the main practitioners of surveillance CBA is misguided. Across a variety of dimensions of institutional competence, the political branches, not the courts, are best placed to make surveillance policy under conditions of technological change.
Keywords: Fourth Amendment, surveillance, cost-benefit analysis
Suggested Citation: Suggested Citation