Court rules against man who was forced to fingerprint-unlock his phone

Enlarge (credit: Kārlis Dambrāns)

A Minnesota appellate court ruled Tuesday against a convicted burglar who was forced by a lower state court to depress his fingerprint on his seized phone, which unlocked it.

This case, State of Minnesota v. Matthew Vaughn Diamond, marks the latest episode in a string of unrelated cases nationwide that test the limits of digital privacy, modern smartphone-based fingerprint scanners, and constitutional law.

In 2015, Diamond went to trial and was convicted of the burglary and two other lesser charges. He was sentenced to 51 months in prison. Diamond appealed largely on the grounds that being ordered to unlock his phone constituted a violation of his Fifth Amendment rights against self-incrimination.