Supreme Court Strengthens Digital Privacy in Geofence Warrant Ruling

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On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a landmark Fourth Amendment decision in Chatrie v. United States, holding that law enforcement conducts a Fourth Amendment search when it obtains historical location information through a geofence warrant. The decision marks one of the Court’s most significant digital privacy rulings since Carpenter v. United States, establishing that Americans maintain a reasonable expectation of privacy in Google’s historical Location History data.

The ruling builds upon an issue Texas Policy Research (TPR) first examined in August 2024, when the Fifth Circuit issued its decision in United States v. Smith. In that case, the Fifth Circuit became the first federal appellate court to hold that obtaining Google’s Location History through a geofence warrant constitutes a Fourth Amendment search. At the same time, however, the court upheld the defendant’s conviction under the good faith exception because the warrant had been issued before courts clearly established the constitutional rule.

At the time, the Fifth Circuit’s decision represented an important step toward recognizing that digital location data deserves meaningful constitutional protection. Today’s Supreme Court ruling cements that principle nationwide.

Rather than focusing on whether a geofence warrant is a Fourth Amendment search, future litigation will instead center on whether a particular geofence warrant satisfies the Constitution’s separate requirements for probable cause and particularity.

Fourth Amendment Geofence Warrant Decision Extends Carpenter

The Court’s opinion, authored by Justice Elena Kagan, builds directly upon its 2018 decision in Carpenter v. United States.

In Carpenter, the Court held that law enforcement generally must obtain a warrant before acquiring historical cell site location information from wireless carriers. The government argued that Google’s Location History should receive less constitutional protection because users voluntarily enable the feature.

The Court rejected that argument.

According to the majority, Google’s Location History is even more revealing than traditional cell site records because it records a user’s location approximately every two minutes, provides accuracy within roughly twenty meters, and can even estimate which floor of a building someone occupies.

The Court concluded that these records create an extraordinarily detailed picture of an individual’s life that extends well beyond movements on public streets.

Third Party Doctrine Rejected for Location Data

Perhaps the most important aspect of the ruling is the Court’s treatment of the longstanding third-party doctrine.

Traditionally, information voluntarily shared with banks, telephone companies, or other businesses received limited Fourth Amendment protection because customers had exposed that information to a third party. The government argued that Google users voluntarily share their location information in exactly this way. The Court disagreed.

It concluded that modern smartphone users do not meaningfully surrender their constitutional privacy simply by using the applications and services that have become indispensable to everyday life. Google repeatedly encourages users to enable Location History while providing a limited explanation of how precise the data is or how it could later be disclosed to law enforcement.

The majority emphasized that using modern smartphone services should not automatically eliminate Fourth Amendment protections. That reasoning has implications well beyond geofence warrants.

Short-Term Location Tracking Is Still Protected

The government also argued that only two hours of location information had been obtained in this case. That, according to federal prosecutors, was too little information to create a constitutional privacy concern. The Supreme Court rejected that argument as well.

The majority explained that even relatively brief periods of location tracking can reveal highly personal information about political activity, religious practices, medical treatment, personal relationships, and other constitutionally protected conduct. The Fourth Amendment does not suddenly become applicable only after surveillance crosses some arbitrary time threshold.

This portion of the decision significantly expands upon Carpenter, making clear that constitutional protections do not depend solely upon the duration of surveillance.

Geofence Warrants Are Not Automatically Unconstitutional

Although this decision represents a major victory for privacy rights, it does not prohibit geofence warrants altogether.

Instead, the Court resolved only the first question presented. The Court held that obtaining Google’s Location History constitutes a Fourth Amendment search. It intentionally declined to decide whether the specific multi-step warrant used in this investigation satisfied the Fourth Amendment’s requirements for probable cause and particularity. Those issues now return to the Fourth Circuit for further proceedings.

That distinction matters.

Future geofence warrants may still survive constitutional review if courts determine they are sufficiently narrow, supported by probable cause, and particularly describe what information may be searched.

Generalized digital dragnets almost certainly face a much steeper constitutional challenge after today’s decision.

Policy Implications for Digital Privacy and Law Enforcement

The decision reaches far beyond one bank robbery investigation in Virginia. It establishes several principles likely to influence future privacy litigation involving digital technologies.

First, courts are increasingly recognizing that digital information deserves constitutional protections comparable to physical papers and effects.

Second, advances in technology do not reduce Fourth Amendment protections simply because companies rather than individuals physically possess the data.

Third, constitutional protections must evolve alongside surveillance technology rather than allowing technological advances to gradually erode individual liberty.

Justice Kagan summarized the principle by warning that the Fourth Amendment must continue protecting Americans against unjustified government intrusion regardless of how technology changes. The ruling also signals that courts may scrutinize other forms of digital surveillance involving app data, cloud storage, location services, and emerging technologies powered by artificial intelligence.

What This Means for Texas

Although Chatrie is a federal constitutional decision, it carries significant implications for Texas.

Texas law enforcement agencies that rely upon digital investigative tools will now operate under clearer constitutional boundaries regarding historical location information.

Texas lawmakers also have an opportunity to build upon these constitutional protections.

The Legislature could establish statutory safeguards governing geofence warrants, require heightened judicial findings before digital location information may be obtained, impose reporting requirements to improve transparency, and establish stronger protections for individuals whose information is collected but who are never suspected of criminal wrongdoing.

Such reforms would not impede legitimate criminal investigations.

Rather, they would reinforce the constitutional principle that government searches should be targeted toward individuals for whom probable cause exists instead of sweeping up information from potentially hundreds of innocent Texans.

Conclusion

The Supreme Court’s decision in Chatrie v. United States marks one of the most important Fourth Amendment rulings in recent years.

The Court held that obtaining historical location information through a geofence warrant is a constitutional search requiring Fourth Amendment protections. It rejected arguments that users forfeit those protections simply by using modern smartphone services or because only a short period of location data was obtained.

At the same time, the Court stopped short of banning geofence warrants outright, leaving lower courts to determine what constitutional standards future warrants must satisfy.

As technology continues to make government surveillance more precise and more pervasive, Chatrie reinforces a principle as old as the Constitution itself. The Fourth Amendment must remain a meaningful safeguard against unreasonable government intrusion, even as the methods of surveillance continue to evolve.

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