Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jun/29/supreme-court-geofence-warrants-case-decision
Publisher: The Guardian (Guardian itself blocked automated access; content corroborated via NPR, ABC News, NBC News, CNN, SCOTUSblog)
Date Published: June 29, 2026
Relevant To: Chatrie v. United States HTML explainer (already built by BPA) — major update
Verification Status: Verified
Notes: IMPORTANT: The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in Chatrie v. United States (opinion by Justice Kagan) that geofence warrants — which compel companies like Google to hand over location data for every cellphone in a defined area/time window — constitute a “search” under the Fourth Amendment, extending Carpenter-line reasoning to Location History data even though it’s voluntarily shared with a third party. The Court did NOT rule on whether the specific Chatrie warrant was constitutionally “reasonable” (particularity/probable cause) — it remanded that question to the 4th Circuit. Alito dissented (joined by Thomas, partly by Barrett), calling it an “irresponsible escapade.” Case background: 2019 Midlothian, VA bank robbery; police geofence warrant swept up Google Location History for a 150-17.5-acre radius, initially returning 19 users before narrowing to Chatrie. Since this decision directly updates the underlying case BPA already built an HTML explainer around, this entry should be flagged for a priority update to that explainer — the case has now moved from pending/circuit-split status to a landmark, decided SCOTUS precedent.