We do have a reasonable expectation of privacy as to even the metadata on them.

Think about the time of the Revolution. Most people lived where they worked. Protecting the home from government search and seizure under a warrant that was neither specific nor based on probable cause was one of the goals of the American revolutionaries and covered the kind of private sphere that now includes our cell phones and computers.

We need to understand the Bill of Rights as a whole and not just as a series of separate provisions.

The Third Amendment is often ignored, but it is the key to understanding the Fourth Amendment.

Amendment III

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/constitution/third_amendment

The Third Amendment was intended to protect the colonists' homes. The Fourth Amendment was broader in meaning and was intended to protect the property as well as the home from any search and seizure. The Fourth Amendment mentions houses, but it mentions it in a list of things separated by commas. We usually read that to mean that the items listed are separately and equally the subject of the law. So the Fourth Amendment would not just refer to papers and things in the house but would be protected just like the house.

The Bill of Rights among other things was intended to preserve the privacy and property of the individual. It was not JUST a matter of keeping the government out of the home. The British were entering the colonists shops, ships and homes and grabbing what they wanted. The Bill of Rights is intended to protect our innate rights to privacy and property.

We must look at the colonists' lifestyle, the intrusions they wanted to protect and then translate as well as we can that intent as to what should be preserved and protected to the technology and lifestyle of our era.

I'm pleased with this decision.

someday, and the outcome there is quite iffy IMO, considering the current make-up of that Court

The bottom line is that we can't win on metadata, without winning in Congress -- and that will require some real work

I sit at this from the other side - and it's simply too much work.