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No, Turning On Your Phone Is Not Consenting To Being Tracked By Police (theintercept.com)
An anonymous reader writes: The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Wednesday upheld a historic decision by a state trial court that the warrantless use of cell-site simulators, or Stingrays, violates the Fourth Amendment. The trial had suppressed evidence obtained by the warrantless use of a Stingray -- the first time any court in the nation had done so. Last April, a Baltimore police detective testified that the department has used Stingrays 4,300 times since 2007, usually without notifying judges or defendants. Stingrays mimic cellphone towers, tricking nearby phones into connecting and revealing users' locations. Stingrays sweep up data on every phone nearby -- collecting information on dozens or potentially hundreds of people. The ruling has the potential to set a strong precedent about warrantless location tracking.
Unless they are morons, the state will only appeal if they think this is a good test case for them. So this is unlikely to set particularly meaningful precedent.
Not sure where you got that, but it was Maryland's Court of Special Appeals; Maryland's second highest court. Its decision is binding on the entire state.
The government can ask for an en banc hearing from the Court of Special Appeals or appeal to Maryland's highest court, The Court of Appeals.
The original opinion was written by a trial judge and the first sentence of TFA states, "The Maryland Court of Special Appeals on Wednesday upheld a historic decision by a state trial court that the warrantless use of cell-site simulators, or Stingrays, violates the Fourth Amendment."
The opinion has not yet been filed but here's the order.