Okello T. Chatrie, Petitioner v. United States

Police used a geofence warrant to make Google turn over location-history data for every device near a Virginia credit-union robbery and then narrowed the list to identify a suspect. The Supreme Court said that search went beyond Fourth Amendment limits and sent the case back to the lower court.

The Court ruled for Chatrie and said this geofence search exceeded Fourth Amendment limits, but the vote count and opinion lineup are not provided here.

The ruling makes it harder for police to use broad geofence warrants that pull in data from many people at once. For example, someone whose phone was simply near a crime scene may have stronger protection against being swept into that search.

The case goes back to the Fourth Circuit for further proceedings. Lower courts, police, and companies with location-history data will need to apply the Court's limits to similar geofence requests.

The Court said the geofence search in this case went beyond Fourth Amendment limits. Police got Google location-history data for every device near the robbery and then narrowed it to identify a suspect.

Police, Google, and people whose phones were swept into broad location searches are affected. The ruling makes broad geofence demands harder to justify.

The case goes back to the Fourth Circuit for further proceedings. Lower courts, police, and companies with location-history data must adjust how they evaluate similar geofence requests.