In a landmark 5–4 decision, the Supreme Court of the U.S. (Court) has reversed the decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit holding that generally, the government’s acquisition of historical cell site location information (CSLI) is a Fourth Amendment search that requires a warrant.1
Bottom Line: The Supreme Court’s decision dramatically expands the scope of the Fourth Amendment in an attempt to modernize it, and provides new safeguards to the right of privacy. The decision and dissents, with the exception of Chief Justice Roberts, reflect party lines with the majority opinion supported by Justices appointed by Democratic Presidents, and the dissents written by Justices appointed by Republican Presidents. While the impact on Law Enforcement (LE) will be immediate, the potential impact on the private use of consumer data will likely invite future policy battles and litigation.
Background
This case stems from the conviction of Timothy Carpenter of a series of robberies in Michigan and Detroit. In 2011, LE arrested four men suspected of robbing a series of Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores in Detroit, Michigan. One of the men confessed that a group of men had robbed nine different stores in Michigan and Ohio and identified accomplices and gave LE their cell phone numbers. Based on that information, prosecutors sought court orders under the Stored Communications Act to obtain the cell phone records for Timothy Carpenter and other suspects.2 Under that statute, the government must present specific and articulable facts showing that there are reasonable grounds to believe that the records sought are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation. LE obtained two court orders directing Carpenter’s wireless carriers to disclose historical CSLI for Carpenter. The first order sought 152 days of CSLI records which produced 127 days of records and the second order requested seven days of CSLI which produced two days of records.
Carpenter was charged with six counts of robbery. Prior to trial, Carpenter moved to suppress the cell-site data provided by the wireless carriers, arguing that the government’s seizure of the records violated the Fourth Amendment because they had been obtained without a warrant supported by probable cause. LE argued that Carpenter lost his right to privacy in the CSLI because he voluntarily turned the records over to third parties. The lower district court denied Carpenter’s motion, and LE used the CSLI records to support a conviction showing Carpenter in the locations of the robberies at that time they occurred. Carpenter was convicted. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit affirmed the lower court holding, affirming that Carpenter lacked a reasonable expectation of privacy in the CSLI collected because he shared that information with his wireless carriers.3 Given that cell phone users voluntarily convey cell-site data to their carriers to establish communications, the Sixth Circuit concluded that under the third party doctrine, the CSLI amounted to business records not entitled to Fourth Amendment protection. The Supreme Court granted certiorari.
Majority Opinion
The Court framed the question presented as whether government conducts a search under the Fourth Amendment when it accesses historical CSLI records that provide a comprehensive chronicle of the user’s past movements. The Court’s answer, in an opinion authored by Chief Justice John Roberts, is that the government’s acquisition of Carpenter’s CSLI records was a Fourth Amendment search requiring a warrant. Justice Roberts explains that each time a phone connects to a cell site, it generates a time-stamped record known as CSLI which wireless carriers collect and store for their own business purposes. The Court explains that the history of the Fourth Amendment seeks to protect the rights of people to be secure in their person, houses, paper and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures. According to the Court, the basic purpose of the Fourth Amendment is to safeguard the privacy and security of individuals against arbitrary invasions by governmental officials. While originally grounded in property rights, the Fourth Amendment protects not only property interests but certain expectations of privacy.4 When an individual seeks to preserve something as private, and this expectation of privacy is recognized by society as reasonable, the Court has held that government intrusion into that private sphere qualifies as a search and requires a warrant supported by probable cause.5
Although there is no definitive list of which expectations of privacy are entitled to protection, according to the Court, the analysis is informed by historical understandings of what was deemed an unreasonable search and seizure when the Fourth Amendment was adopted. The Court provides a framework with two basic principles: (1) the Amendment seeks to secure the privacies of life against arbitrary power;6 and (2) relatedly, a central aim of the Framers was to place obstacles in the way of too permeating police surveillance.7 As technology has enhanced...
