Supreme Court Reviews Constitutionality of Geofence Warrants

On April 27, 2026, the Supreme Court heard arguments on the constitutionality of a “geofence” warrant—an order compelling a tech firm to reveal location-history data for anyone inside a defined area. The case arises from a bank robbery in Midlothian, Virginia, where $195,000 was stolen.

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The Fourth Amendment bars unreasonable searches absent a neutral, specific warrant. The Court has repeatedly favored privacy when analog precedents meet digital data, according to Justice Department veteran Michael Dreeben. Google’s location-history logged users’ positions roughly every two minutes, with about one-third of its 1.5 billion users—?500 million—opted in.

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Stanford professor Orin Kerr filed a brief supporting the government; Justice Department’s Michael Dreeben represents the government; defense attorney Adam Unikowsky opposes the warrant; Google submitted a neutral brief; a state magistrate issued the original warrant.

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• Bank robbery: $195,000 stolen.

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• Two months later: police file geofence warrant.

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• Magistrate authorizes search of three-football-field area.

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• Google narrows 19 users to three; one arrested.

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• April 27, 2026: Supreme Court hearing.

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Roughly 500 million Google users had location history enabled. In 2020, 11,500 geofence warrants were served on Google, per Hofstra Law Review.

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The government says voluntary opt-in to location history waives privacy expectations, making data “fair game.” Google argues digital records deserve Fourth Amendment protection and require a warrant. Unikowsky calls the warrant a dragnet general search.

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Civil-rights groups warn geofence warrants can sweep up innocent people—churchgoers, psychiatric patients, lovers—without individualized suspicion, and could be used to monitor lawful protests, creating dragnet surveillance.

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The total number of geofence warrants after 2020 is unknown, and the fates of the two non-arrested Midlothian users remain undisclosed. Google now stores data on devices.

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• “This was a little bit of an investigative lottery ticket when they had no other way of finding a suspect,” — Orin Kerr, Stanford law professor

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• “At the Founding, people absolutely despised general warrants that would allow the police to search every single person's house without any suspicion,” — Adam Unikowsky, defense attorney

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• “They say that if you put data in the cloud, you've just given it away to the cloud service voluntarily and therefore it's fair game for the government to come and get it,” — Michael Dreeben, Justice Department veteran

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• “The big question is going to be how easy it is to game for internet providers,” — Orin Kerr, Stanford professor

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The Court’s decision will shape law-enforcement access to mass location data and set precedent for other digital records. A ruling is expected by summer 2026.

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