Story perspectives

Court Weighs Trump Admin’s Geo-Warrant Defense, Rights Groups Oppose

4/28/2026

Summary

Story summary

The Court heard arguments on April 27, 2026, in Okello Chatrie’s challenge to 2019 Virginia robbery geofence warrant.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, with Solicitor General D. John Sauer, argued waive privacy by opting into Google’s location-history, so warrant is not a search.
The Fourth Amendment Center and Electronic Frontier Foundation say the warrants act as a dragnet capturing innocent data, noting Google stores location-history on devices and cannot comply.

History

Historical Context

After the Supreme Court’s 2012 United States v. Jones decision—authored by Justice Antonin Scalia and decided 5-4 that attaching a GPS tracker to a vehicle is a Fourth Amendment search—courts have grappled with digital surveillance. The 2019 Virginia geofence-warrant, challenged in 2026 by Okello Chatrie, revives Jones’s trespass reasoning and could force law-enforcement to obtain individualized warrants.

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Story summary

The Court heard arguments on April 27, 2026, in Okello Chatrie’s challenge to 2019 Virginia robbery geofence warrant.
U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, with Solicitor General D. John Sauer, argued waive privacy by opting into Google’s location-history, so warrant is not a search.
The Fourth Amendment Center and Electronic Frontier Foundation say the warrants act as a dragnet capturing innocent data, noting Google stores location-history on devices and cannot comply.

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