14,000 Crypto Accounts Swept Into IRS Data Grab—Will the Supreme Court Act?
A constitutional showdown over the privacy rights of cryptocurrency users could reshape how digital financial data is protected under the Fourth Amendment. On June 13, the New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) and Supreme Court litigator Kannon Shanmugam filed a reply brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in Harper v. Faulkender, challenging the federal government’s use of the “third-party doctrine” to justify warrantless seizures of crypto-related financial records. The case centers on James Harper, a Coinbase customer whose data was swept up in an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) probe…
Mark Chenoweth, president of NCLA, emphasized the broader stakes: “The third-party doctrine is a Fourth Amendment abomination. People have little choice in the digital age but to share private information with third-party service providers. Doing so does not surrender their property or privacy interests in that data, so the Court should require government agencies to obtain search warrants to access it.” Senior Litigation Counsel John Vecchione added: “The government has failed to proffer convincing reasons why certiorari ought not be granted in this case. The case not only represents an injustice to Jim Harper’s rights but also presents novel and important questions for Fourth Amendment rights in the digital age.”
June 16, 2025
Originally Published in Bitcoin.com