In the 4-3 decision, the court’s majority said the robbery suspect was subjected to a warrantless search when police obtained his real-time cellphone location information. They ruled that the information was illegally acquired and should be excluded from evidence.
At issue was whether there's a “reasonable expectation of privacy" regarding a person's real-time cell-site location information, also known as CSLI, under federal Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches and seizures. Such information can be used to determine a cellphone's location with “near perfect accuracy” when the phone is powered on, the court noted.
“In obtaining an individual’s cell phone’s real-time CSLI, police commandeer the cell phone and its transmissions for the purpose of locating that individual,”
The ruling stems from a case in
“This is kind of a guarantee from the court saying that the government can’t search your real-time CSLI to get your location without a warrant," said
The state attorney general's office didn't immediately respond to an email seeking comment.
The cell service provider located the phone and authorities used the information to track
On appeal, the state
“Today we hold that individuals have an objectively reasonable expectation that their cell phones will not be used as real-time tracking devices through the direct and active interference of law enforcement,” Minton wrote.
He wrote that searching a cellphone's contents is an invasion of a person's “reasonable expectation of privacy sufficient to merit Fourth Amendment protection.” The Court of Appeals said the Fourth Amendment requires a warrant to search a person's cell-site location information.
“We find no reason why such an expectation of privacy would not extend to data unwittingly, involuntarily transmitted by a person’s cell phone to their cell-service provider regarding their location,” Minton said. “Police may not subvert the warrant requirement merely by going directly to the cell-service provider.”
As the case was argued, attorneys for the state said the consequences would be that police always have to obtain a warrant before getting a suspect's real-time cellphone location information.
The
In his dissenting opinion, Justice
The dissenting opinion said the trial court's denial of the suppression motion should be reinstated. Justices
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