Supreme Court Reviews Geofence Warrants in Bank Robbery Case; Roundup Cancer Litigation

U.S. Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Monday in the case Chatrie v. United States, focusing on the use of geofence search warrants by law enforcement and federal agents. Geofence warrants compel tech companies like Google to provide information about users' locations at a certain place and time based on phone location data.

These warrants have been used in cases involving innocent people nearby with no connection to incidents, incorrect filings outside intended scope, and identification of individuals at protests or legal assemblies. A New York Times investigation found geofence warrants first used by federal agents in 2016. U.S.

Have filed thousands of geofence warrants each year. Geofence warrants represent a significant proportion of legal demands received by tech companies like Google, which stores location data from user searches, maps, and Android devices. Chatrie v.

U.S. Supreme Court this decade. Okello Chatrie, a Virginia man, was convicted of a 2019 bank robbery. Police served a geofence search warrant to Google for phones located within a short radius of the bank within an hour of the 2019 robbery.

Google provided anonymized location data for account holders in the area at the time of the robbery. Investigators requested more information about accounts near the bank for several hours prior to the robbery. Police received names and information of three account holders, one identified as Chatrie.

Chatrie pleaded guilty and received a sentence of more than 11 years in prison. A lower court agreed the geofence warrant lacked probable cause linking Chatrie to the robbery but allowed the evidence because law enforcement acted in good faith, according to SCOTUSblog. U.S.

Supreme Court to take up the case after a split-court on appeal. U.S. United States.