Fifth Circuit Upholds Warrantless Cellphone Location Tracking

First time accepted submitter mendax writes "The New York Times is reporting, 'In a significant victory for law enforcement, a federal appeals court on Tuesday said that government authorities could extract historical location data directly from telecommunications carriers without a search warrant. The closely watched case, in the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, is the first ruling (PDF) that squarely addresses the constitutionality of warrantless searches of historical location data stored by cellphone service providers. Ruling 2 to 1, the court said a warrantless search was 'not per se unconstitutional' because location data was 'clearly a business record' and therefore not protected by the Fourth Amendment.'' The article pointed out that this went squarely against a New Jersey Supreme Court opinion rendered earlier this month but noted that the state court's ruling was based upon the text of the state's constitution, not that of the federal constitution."

Comments

Re:Fourth Amendment

[EmagGeek]

You need to read the Commerce Clause and supporting case law, which says that anything having an effect on Interstate Commerce is a business record and not a "Paper" or personal effect.

Bank Statements, emails, and so on, are all fair game.

Re:Unlikely to impress SCOTUS

[Hatta]

Wasn't the issue in Jones that the police affixed the GPS tracker to the vehicle without a warrant? When you willingly carry a tracking device, the expectation of privacy is entirely different.

Re:What is the carriers' position?

[pixelpusher220]

nothing says they have to

Actually, lots of the Patriot Act and such recent legislation is making them do exactly that. They don't have grounds to oppose a subpoena since it isn't incriminating of 'them'.