In a 9-0 ruling written by Chief Justice Roberts, the Supreme Court ruled today that searches of cell phones require a warrant except in cases with exigent circumstances. In addition to being a clear victory for privacy advocates in the law enforcement sphere, the case has powerful ramifications for past, present, and future NSA programs.

Today’s ruling includes a number of significant hints at the Court's growing dissatisfaction with the government's willingness to trample privacy rights, (Marcy Wheeler’s twitter feed has a good rundown), but one line stands out. In Riley, the government suggested that law enforcement could develop “agency protocols” to ensure that cell phone searches are limited to local, rather than cloud data, an argument the Supreme Court tellingly, sharply rebuffed:

. . . the Founders did not fight a revolution to gain the right to government agency protocols.

NSA senior officials have touted internal agency limits on how and when NSA analysts can query the database as demonstrating the legality of NSA's un-targeted, mass surveillance operations. (Of course, the NSA has been caught violating such procedures multiple times ), but that’s another story.)