January 1, Supreme Court to Rule on Police Phone Tracking

Wyatt’s Take

• The Supreme Court will decide if police can use cellphone location data from geofence warrants in criminal court.
• Some judges say gathering data on everyone near a crime scene goes too far and hurts privacy rights.
• The outcome could change how much privacy Americans can expect when using their phones.

The Supreme Court has agreed to look at whether police can use geofence warrants to collect people’s cellphone location near crime scenes. This decision comes after lower courts could not agree if such warrants break the Fourth Amendment, which guards against unreasonable searches.

Geofence warrants let police see who was in a certain area when a crime happened, even if there is no evidence those people did anything wrong. In this case, police got a list of devices near a 2019 bank robbery and later found out who some belonged to, leading to an arrest.

One judge said, “These warrants intrude into the private lives of many Americans who may never have a chance to contest the incursion.” Arguments in the case focused on whether people give up privacy just by keeping location turned on.

Some courts say if people choose to use location services, they have less privacy. Others say that shouldn’t let police collect everyone’s data. The Department of Justice wanted the Supreme Court to ignore the case, but it will now get the final say.

This decision could set a big new rule for what police need before tracking everyone in a certain spot.

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Wyatt Matters

When technology makes it easier for the government to watch where we go, folks in the heartland start asking who’s really safe from snooping. These are the kinds of choices that can shape everyday freedom for the rest of us.