About

Author’s Vitae⎜

Vania Mia Chaker graduated from Stanford University with honors and with distinction. She holds a juris doctor from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She holds dual M.B.A. degrees from Columbia Business School and the University of California, Berkeley Haas School of Business.

While in law school, she served as president of the Federalist Society and as a senior editor of the Harvard Journal of Law & Public Policy at Harvard Law School. (See https://www.harvard-jlpp.com)

Ms. Chaker clerked in the federal judiciary as an elbow clerk to the Hon. Rudi M. Brewster in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California and the Hon. Mitchel R. Goldberg in the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Central District of California.

Ms. Chaker has been associated with the global law firms of Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman, Baker & McKenzie, and Fox Rothschild, serving in the Mergers & Acquisitions, Corporate Finance, Venture Capital, and Insolvency practice areas of these firms.

Ms. Chaker has also served as a Charles G. Koch Fellow; worked for the United States Congress for the Hon. C. Christopher Cox and for the House Republican Policy Committee; and served as a Research Assistant at the Hoover Institution. She remains active in political, professional, and charitable activities.

Ms. Chaker authored Chimaera Unleashed: The Specter of Warrantless Governmental Intrusion Is a Phantom that Has Achieved Greater Life in the Ether of Internet Communications, 23 J. Tech. L. & Pol’y 1. It is part of the Chimaera series of law articles and has been published in the University of Florida Levin College of Law Journal of Technology Law & Policy as the featured article. See https://www.journaloftechlaw.org.

Other published scholarly work, "Your Spying Smart Phone" ​Individual Privacy Is Narrowly Strengthened in Carpenter v. United States, The U.S. Supreme Court’s Most Recent Fourth Amendment Ruling, has been cited by the American Bar Association's Privacy and Security Practice Committee. (See https://www.americanbar.org/groups/litigation/committees/privacy-data-security/practice/2019/third-party-doctrine-wake-of-seismic-shift)

Throughout her career, Ms. Chaker has remained active in political, professional, and charitable activities, including those related to helping children and those less fortunate. In her personal life, she enjoys spending time with family, international travel, interior design, and fine dining.

Additional Information may be found at www.VaniaChaker.com

Featured Work

"Your Spying Smart Phone" ​Individual Privacy Is Narrowly Strengthened in Carpenter v. United States, The U.S. Supreme Court’s Most Recent Fourth Amendment Ruling ​

2018

By Vania M. Chaker

Abstract - Carpenter v. United States
Your Spying Smartphone: Individual Privacy Is Narrowly Strengthened in Carpenter v. United States, The U.S. Supreme Court’s Most Recent Fourth Amendment Ruling

Recently, the United States Supreme Court wrestled with the profoundly complex and bedeviling issue of individual privacy in the landmark case of Carpenter v. United States. It is the most recent in a long line of Fourth Amendment cases that examine an individual’s reasonable expectation of privacy. In Carpenter, the Supreme Court revisited and expanded upon this query from Riley v. California and United States v. Jones—both progeny of Katz v. United States, the leading case in this area.

The Carpenter Court ruled the government required a warrant before it could use private information arising from defendant Timothy Carpenter’s cellular phone—specifically, his cell site location information (CSLI). In the 5-4 decision, the Court ruled “narrowly” in favor of privacy, finding the government had constitutionally violated Mr. Carpenter’s reasonable expectation of privacy by acquiring this private information without a warrant. It ruled that, as a cell phone customer, Mr. Carpenter could reasonably expect that his CSLI would be treated as private, even though it was in the possession of a third party. In so ruling, the Court declined to apply the long-standing third-party doctrine of United States v. Miller and Smith v. Maryland. ​

These cases, which stand for the proposition that there is a reduced expectation of privacy in information an individual knowingly shares with another, have thus been narrowed. Against a backdrop of stunningly advanced surveillance technology and the strictures of the United States Constitution, the question of how individual privacy comports with the need for police investigation is a complex and impressively difficult one.

In the current political landscape, judicial vigilance becomes increasingly important in protecting the appropriate dimensions of individual privacy. The grave risks of governmental abuse may militate in favor of strengthened judicial oversight in determining the parameters of the state’s broad investigative powers. Strong privacy protections may indeed serve to function as a safeguard against the risks of governmental overreach, police misconduct, and improper warrantless surveillance. ​
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See https://www.journaloftechlaw.org.

Other Works

  • ​Chimaera Unleashed – Part I: ​The Specter of Warrantless Governmental Searches Is a Phantom That Has Achieved Greater Life in the Ether of Internet Communications ​

    2019

  • Essay: Warrantless Governmental Surveillance Through the Use of Emerging Technology Has Become a Mainstay of Governmental Investigation

    2018

Awards and Recognition

  • Graduation Honors, Stanford University; Graduation with Distinction, Stanford University

Press and Media Mentions