(Washington, DC)—Unconstitutional “geofence” warrants allow law enforcement to seize the private geolocation data of every individual within a specific geographic area, turning innocent bystanders into targets of government surveillance. This blatant violation of the Fourth Amendment must be halted, and the Liberty Justice Center has filed an amicus curiae brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case Chatrie v. United States, challenging these warrants.
In Chatrie v. United States, the Court will decide whether broad digital searches violate the Fourth Amendment right to privacy. The Liberty Justice Center argues that geofence warrants lack the “particularity” and “probable cause” required by the Constitution, functioning instead as “general warrants” that sweep up the private data of thousands of innocent Americans in the hopes of finding a single suspect.
This modern-day equivalent of the “general warrants” was the very thing the Founding Fathers specifically sought to outlaw with the Fourth Amendment. While in the 18th century, British officials used “writs of assistance” to conduct broad, indiscriminate searches of homes and businesses, today, the government is using geofence warrants to perform the same kind of “indiscriminate rummaging.” Except this time, they are searching our digital lives and private movements instead of our physical drawers.
“The government is not entitled to track all of us for our own good,” said Reilly Stephens, Director of Amicus Practice at the Liberty Justice Center. “Dragnet geofence warrants toss anyone with a phone in their pocket in the same bucket, subjecting the population to systematic invasions of privacy for government convenience. We hope the court clarifies that the Fourth Amendment’s protections apply to this technology as well.”
The Liberty Justice Center has a long history of litigating against government overreach and surveillance, including challenges to automated license plate readers and warrantless searches of private property in Scholl v. Illinois State Police, and our filings in Page v. Comey, a case fighting against surveillance abuse under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
Americans have the right to privacy, and we are asking the Supreme Court to uphold the Fourth Amendment’s requirements of particularity and probable cause, protecting the private movements of all Americans from being treated as a playground for government surveillance.
The Liberty Justice Center’s amicus brief in Chatrie v. United States is available here.