US EditionSupreme Court to decide constitutionality of geofence warrants
The Supreme Court will resolve a split among lower courts on geofence warrants, used thousands of times by law enforcement, amid privacy concerns over broad location data collection.
- On January 16, 2026, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed to review whether geofence warrants are constitutional in Chatrie v. United States.
- The case traces to a 2019 bank robbery in Midlothian that led to Okello Chatrie’s identification after investigators used Google location data and was convicted for robbing $195,000 on May 20, 2019.
- Police served a geofence warrant seeking every device near the bank within an hour and a 150-meter radius, obtaining Google data from three warrants to identify the phone’s owner.
- The U.S. Supreme Court could schedule arguments as soon as March or April, with a decision by the end of June, amid a circuit split over geofence warrants upheld by the Fourth Circuit and ruled unconstitutional by the Fifth Circuit.
- Amid thousands of uses of geofence warrants, Google changed its location-data policy last year, and the federal government says this 'significantly diminishes' future geofence-warrant issues in prosecutions.
58 Articles
58 Articles
Omaha World-Herald
Court to weigh warrants over location history
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court agreed Friday to decide the constitutionality of broad search warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users to find people near crime scenes.
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The Supreme Court agreed this Friday to review whether court orders that allow the police to access large amounts of cellular location data to identify people near a crime scene are constitutional.
Supreme Court to determine legality of geofence warrants
The Supreme Court announced Friday it will hear a case challenging the constitutionality of geofence warrants, as their usage in criminal investigations continues to expand. The high court granted review in Chatrie v. United States, limiting the scope of the arguments to whether the execution of a geofence warrant violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. The case involves a man who was convicted o…
Associated Press News
Supreme Court will decide on use of warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users
The Supreme Court has agreed to decide the constitutionality of broad search warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users to find people near crime scenes.
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