The Supreme Court signaled it will likely hold that police geofence sweeps of cell phones around crime scenes are Fourth Amendment searches requiring a warrant; justices expressed concern about the breadth of such warrants and the potential exposure of thousands of users’ location data. The case, Chatrie v. United States, revisits the Carpenter precedent and drew scrutiny from justices across ideological lines as well as an amicus brief from Google. #Chatrie #Google
Keypoints
- The Court indicated geofence searches likely qualify as Fourth Amendment searches and require warrants.
- The government argued that geofence probes do not trigger Fourth Amendment protections.
- Justices raised concerns about how broad and non‑particular geofence warrants can be, citing examples from Google’s brief.
- Okello Chatrie was identified through a Google geofence search and convicted of a bank robbery based on that data.
- The decision will build on Carpenter v. United States and could impose limits on reverse location-data searches without banning them outright.
Read More: https://therecord.media/supreme-court-signals-location-data-searches-require-warrant