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Story summary
- Supreme Court heard Chatrie v. United States on April 27, 2026 to decide if reverse-location “geofence” warrants violate the Fourth Amendment.
- The case challenges a 2019 Virginia bank-robbery warrant that collected nearby phones’ location data via apps such as Google Location History.
- Lawyers argue the warrant breached privacy because it collected data without individualized suspicion.
- Scholars warn that upholding geofence warrants could broaden reverse-search tactics used in Jan 6, pipe-bomb and homicide investigations.
