So does this mean they can search your phone on-scene, or does it at least still require an actual warrant, and warrants are just now easier to obtain?
Judges ruled that access to mobile phone data must be subject to a prior review by a court of independent authority except in the most urgent cases.
The latter, and not necessarily easier.
A lot of people who have very strong opinions know very little about how these rulings work. They come about when a member state's court doesn't know what the best ruling would be in accordance with both national and EU law - so it goes to the next court up for clarification. If no court can do it on the national level, it goes to the EU court.
Said court then gives an advisory ruling that allows states to adjust their own legislation. It is about clarifying law. The rulings are not magic words that are now law. But since all citizens need to know that wherever they freely travel or live in the EU, the overarching laws (which americans might think of as federal laws vs state laws) are the same, these advisory rulings matters in how all states adjust their regulations.
In this case, a phone was seized but not unlocked, as the state (represented by judges who have to sign the warrant to do so) would not agree to it because it was uncertain whether it was justified, essentially because 85 grams of weed is ... well 85 grams of weed - so the potential
severity of the crime was weighed as the deciding factor.
The EU ruled that if there is certainty that a crime occurred (illegal substance has been distributed), a judge should not weigh the
severity of the crime itself as the deciding factor when considering granting or not granting a warrant when it's about a phone search - there's a dozen factors to consider when doing so, but
severity of the crime should not be one.
For example: Whether you distribute 560g (20oz) vs 56kg (2000oz) of cocaine is not a relevant factor to consider - the distribution of cocaine, the type of the crime, is.
The consequence of the ruling is that essentially now every nation should categorize which crimes warrant seizing and searching phones in the first place and which do not. A judge still has to evaluate the individual case to grant the phone search beforehand.
The court also ruled the owner of the phone has to be informed of such a warrant immediately, which was not previously the case.
TL;DR:
In shorter terms the ruling is: It is the nature or type of the crime that must determine whether a judge grants a warrant to search a phone (amongst many other factors), but not its severity. Adjust national laws accordingly. Also people affected have to be told of the outcome of the warrant asap. (was not previously the case)
