Supreme Court Puts Limits on Cellphone Location Data Searches

When police officers sweep up location data from cellphone users near crimes scenes, they must comply with the Fourth Amendment, the Supreme Court ruled in a modest victory for privacy rights in the digital age. Such so-called geofence searches have become a popular tool for law enforcement, but critics say they put at risk the personal data of everyday Americans and violate the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and seizure. “An individual has a reasonable expectation of privacy in records about his cellphone’s location, and police intrude on that constitutionally protected interest when they demand the information—even though for only a limited time, and from a third-party tech company,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote for five justices in the 6-to-3 decision. But her opinion went no further, and it returned the case to a lower court to decide whether the search at issue in the case had violated the Constitution. “It is therefore now up to the court of appeals,” she wrote, “to decide whether, at each step of the search process, the warrant satisfied the Fourth Amendment’s requirements of particularity and probable cause.” An ideologically mixed group of justices made up the majority, with Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Brett M. Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson joining Justice Kagan. Justice Neil M. Gorsuch agreed with the majority’s bottom line but not its reasoning. In dissent, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote that the majority had destabilized the law in ways that “will send seismic waves through our Fourth Amendment doctrine,” adding: “I cannot support this irresponsible escapade.” Justices Clarence Thomas and Amy Coney Barrett joined parts of Justice Alito’s dissent.