US EditionSupreme Court to debate whether police may seek sweeping cellphone location data in investigations
Justices are considering whether broad location-data searches amount to unreasonable searches, with prosecutors saying the warrant helped identify a bank robbery suspect.
- On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments on whether geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment, centering on Okello Chatrie's challenge to police demands for Google location data without a specific suspect.
- In 2019, Chatrie robbed a Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian, Virginia, escaping with $195,000; investigators then served a geofence warrant on Google to parse location data on millions of users near the crime scene.
- Solicitor General D. John Sauer argued the warrant was lawful, citing "probable cause to believe that Google had information that would help identify the cellphone-using robber," while privacy advocates warn such searches threaten innocent people.
- Google has since updated its storage policies, stating it "can no longer respond to geofence warrants based on Location History data," though the Court must still determine if past warrants remain constitutional.
- The case forces the Supreme Court to square 1791 constitutional language with modern surveillance, as critics fear a ruling could "unleash a much broader wave of similar reverse searches" without judicial supervision.
99 Articles
99 Articles
You can get dragged into a police investigation by proximity alone
A years-old bank heist may soon have major privacy implications for every American who owns a cellphone. On Monday, the Supreme Court heard arguments in Chatrie v. United States, a case involving police's use of controversial "geofence warrants" to find and arrest Okello Chatrie, the suspect of a 2019 bank robbery outside Richmond, Virginia. At stake is how private your location data - and any other information you store with a large tech compan…
TechXplore
US Supreme Court hears privacy case involving smartphone location data
The US Supreme Court heard arguments on Monday about law enforcement's use of "geofence warrants"—the collection of smartphone location data about everyone who was near a particular place at a specific time.
Daily Montanan
US Supreme Court weighs how far police investigations can go in using cellphone location data
The U.S. Supreme Court on April 9, 2026. (Photo by Ashley Murray/States NewsroomThe U.S. Supreme Court on Monday appeared likely to allow law enforcement to continue seeking warrants for the location history of cellphones near crime scenes, even as the justices wrestled with how far the government must go to protect Americans’ privacy. Some of the justices appeared to be searching for a middle ground during oral arguments in a case out of Virgin…
Spectrum Local News
Supreme Court seems inclined to allow police to use geofence warrants to identify criminal suspects
The Supreme Court seems inclined to rule that police could use geofence warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users to find people near crime scenes
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