Supreme Court Restricts Geofence Warrants in 6-3 Privacy Ruling

The Supreme Court of the United States ruled 6-3 that individuals have a legitimate expectation of privacy in their cellphone location information, restricting the use of geofence warrants. Writing for the majority, Justice Elena Kagan stated that users do not forfeit their Fourth Amendment protections simply by opting into location services from companies like Google. This decision extends the legal precedent of Carpenter v. United States to broader location history databases.

The ruling originated from the case of Okello Chatrie, who was identified and convicted for a 2019 bank robbery in Midlothian, Virginia, after police used a geofence warrant to obtain data from Google. While the court established that accessing such data constitutes a search, it did not categorically ban the practice or definitively rule on the legality of the specific warrant used in the Chatrie case. Instead, the court remanded the matter to the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to evaluate if the warrant met requirements for probable cause and particularity.

Justice Samuel Alito dissented, arguing that information voluntarily provided to a third party lacked an expectation of privacy and calling the majority's approach an irresponsible escapade. Law enforcement agencies must now demonstrate probable cause and obtain full search warrants to access this specific type of data.