Supreme Court to decide if a warrant is needed to track a suspect through cellphone records

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The Supreme Court next term will decide whether law enforcement authorities need a warrant to track a suspect through his cellphone records, justices announced June 5. The case seeks to resolve a digital-age question that has divided lower courts relying on past Supreme Court precedents about privacy.

“Only this court can provide the guidance they seek about whether and how a doctrine developed long before the digital age applies to the voluminous and sensitive digital records at issue here,” wrote American Civil Liberties Union lawyers representing Timothy Carpenter. Investigating a string of armed robberies in the Midwest in 2010 and 2011, a prosecutor sought access to more than five months of historical cellphone location records for Carpenter, his lawyers said. Law enforcement officials did not seek warrants based on probable cause, but asked for the records under the Stored Communications Act.


Supreme Court to decide if a warrant is needed to track a suspect through cellphone records Supreme Court takes up warrantless use of cellphone data (The Hill)