The US Supreme Court ruled Monday that law enforcement must obtain a search warrant based on probable cause before accessing cellphone location data through geofence searches. The 6-3 decision in Chatrie v. United States strengthens Fourth Amendment protections for users' digital location history.
The ruling, written by Justice Elena Kagan, found that individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in records of their cellphone's location. It determined that geofencing warrants, which allow police to pull data on all devices in an area without individualized suspicion, intrude on that interest.
The case originated from the 2019 arrest of Okello Chatrie in Virginia after police used a geofence warrant on Google to identify suspects in a $195,000 bank robbery. Chatrie, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison, challenged the method as unconstitutional.
Privacy advocates welcomed the decision. Alan Butler of the Electronic Privacy Information Center said warrantless geofence searches are incompatible with Fourth Amendment protections. Tech industry representatives also supported the clarification that judicial authorization is required.
Justice Samuel Alito dissented, arguing the majority created a new rule that could destabilize Fourth Amendment law. The case returns to a lower court to assess whether probable cause existed for the original warrant.
