US Supreme Court rules geofence warrants require constitutional protections

The US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that law enforcement's use of geofence warrants—which collect smartphone location data from people near crime scenes—requires Fourth Amendment privacy protections. Justice Elena Kagan's majority opinion held that individuals have a reasonable expectation of privacy in their cell phone location records, even when collected from third-party tech companies for limited periods. The ruling rejected the government's argument that accessing brief location data doesn't constitute a constitutional search, addressing concerns that such warrants operate as unconstitutional dragnet surveillance.