Supreme Court will decide on use of warrants that collect the location history of cellphone users

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: AP

Updated 3:31 PM EST, January 16, 2026


WASHINGTON (AP) — 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.

The case involves what is a known as a “geofence warrant” that was served on Google in a police hunt for a bank robber in suburban Richmond, Virginia. Geofence warrants, an increasingly popular investigative tool, seek location data on every person within a specific location over a certain period of time.

Police used the information to arrest Okello Chatrie in the 2019 robbery of the Call Federal Credit Union in Midlothian. Chatrie eventually pleaded guilty and was sentenced to nearly 12 years in prison.

Chatrie’s lawyers challenged the warrant as a violation of his privacy because it allowed authorities to gather the location history of people near the bank without having any evidence they had anything to do with the robbery. Prosecutors argued that Chatrie had no expectation of privacy because he voluntarily opted into Google’s Location History.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-location-tracking-warrants-9d8a0b0bcfcbc0a0891676e0e0a5f0c6

[cstanleytech]

1. My bet is the Republican majority on SCOTUS will render another pro-fascists ruling.

[Polybius]

6. Maybe not

On 4th Amendment issues, Gorsuch usually sides with us.

[cstanleytech]

7. They have a six majority so they can afford to offer a token dissent.

[Polybius]

8. Well, we only need to sway one more

I'm hoping for Amy or Kavanaugh.

[Cheezoholic]

2. At some point (if not already) we're going to have to decide on shutting them off or privacy when traveling

I personally have mine off and in a faraday bag that vastly reduces any chance of it being tracked when traveling. I'm just a noid but its seriously coming to that. I wouldn't be surprised if at some point carriers try to force you to stay in contact for some stupid reason to satisfy and ever increasing surveillance state.

[markodochartaigh]

4. "...try to force you to stay in contact for some stupid reason..."

My location is turned off. When I google a restaurant or grocery store, or anything like that, I get pop-ups telling me to turn on my location. It's only an annoyance but I'm sure that the techbros are working on a bigger stick since I wouldn't take their carrot.

[TommyT139]

10. Location is one thing...

...but if I understand this correctly, the geofence data demands a list of what cell towers your phone is connecting to, right?

So you'd not only need to turn off location, but also cut yourself off from phone calls, texting, internet, etc. -- thus the faraday bag.

Or am I misunderstanding how these things work?

[Herself]

3. What is the down side to gop?

That they get caught in their own geofence and lose the midterms same time.

[C Moon]

5. Google is evil.

[Bayard]

9. Sounds like unreasonable search and seizure

The Police State.