US supreme court rules geofence warrants require constitutional privacy protections | US supreme court
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/29/supreme-court-geofence-warrants-case-decision
Publish Date: 2026-06-29 10:33:00
Source Domain: www.theguardian.com
The US supreme court has ruled that law enforcement’s use of sprawling warrants that sweep up smartphone location data requires privacy protections under the fourth amendment, in a boost to critics who view their use as an unconstitutional dragnet.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion.
The use of geofence warrants is widespread, and gives law enforcement agencies the power to compel tech companies to hand over sensitive cell phone data from people at or near crime scenes. Police agencies and the FBI have used geofence warrants to collect this information from individuals that fall within the radius of a virtual “fence” during a particular timeframe. They aren’t restricted to requesting data for precise targets.
That has alarmed privacy advocates, who say these sweeping warrants can be overly broad in the area they target, as well as the length of time they cover. “If the government doesn’t need to … link something to a crime, it could monitor a protest or an abortion clinic or a gun range or a church or an AA meeting or a doctor’s office,” says Matthew Tokson, a law professor at the University of Utah.
The Chatrie case focuses on local police’s pursuit of an armed bank robber in Richmond, Virginia. He fled with $195,000. Law enforcement tracked Okello Chatrie down through their use of geofence warrants. Chatrie had opted in to an optional Google “location history” feature that documented his location every few minutes. He was eventually sentenced to 12 years in prison, after pleading guilty.
Chatrie’s lawyers argued that this search was overly broad and violated his fourth amendment rights, which protects individuals from “unreasonable search and seizure.” Lawyers said that police’s use of geofence warrants amounted to an official “search” under the Fourth Amendment, and didn’t meet the constitution’s requirements for one.
Law enforcement has said they need these geofence warrants to find suspects and witnesses–after…
