Court Requires Phone-Data Warrants

The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that broad geofence cellphone-location data sweeps are Fourth Amendment searches, rejecting the government's claim that no warrant is required and sending courts into the next test over how narrow those warrants must be.

1. Frame 1The Supreme Court rules broad geofence phone-data sweeps require warrants, limiting police access to phone-location records.
2. Frame 2The case came from a Virginia bank robbery conviction built partly on Google location data near the crime scene.
3. Frame 3Geofence warrants can identify phones inside a virtual area even when investigators have not named a suspect.
4. Frame 4Justice Elena Kagan's 6-3 majority said people keep privacy expectations in cellphone location records.
5. Frame 5The ruling rejected the government's argument that no warrant was required for historical geofence data.
6. Frame 6Courts must now test how broad a location warrant can be, including the Virginia warrant itself.