“Shall the Missouri Constitution be amended so that the people shall be secure in their electronic communications and data from unreasonable searches and seizures as they are now likewise secure in their persons, homes, papers and effects?”

If you live in Missouri, that’s one of the questions you will find on the Aug. 5 ballot. It’s called Amendment 9, and up until a few weeks ago, we would have strongly endorsed the measure.

Then the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that cellphones have that privacy protection throughout the country.

In the unanimous court ruling in June, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote: “Modern cellphones are not just another technological convenience. With all they contain and all they may reveal, they hold for many Americans the privacies of life.”

With that ruling, Missourians as well as everyone in the United States should be secure, in that their cellphones can’t be searched without a warrant.

We no longer see a reason to add yet another amendment to our already heavily amended state constitution. In the argument that less is more, we would point out that some of these constitutional amendments provoke costly, burdensome legal challenges that tie up the court system for years.

We don’t need that. We already have the word from the top court in the land. Our electronic devices and rights are protected by the U.S. Constitution.

To add Amendment 9 to the state constitution is redundant.

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