U.S. Supreme Court Limits Government Access to Cell Phone Tracking

The Supreme Court sided with the privacy rights of cellphone users in a dispute over law enforcement tracking their movements. At issue is whether the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment requires a search warrant for the government to access a person’s cellphone location history. Chief Justice Roberts stated: “We decline to grant the state unrestricted access to a wireless carrier’s database of physical location information. The fact that such information is gathered by a third party does not make it any less deserving of Fourth Amendment protection. The Government’s acquisition of the cell-site records here was a search under that Amendment.”