Supreme Court ruling guts government’s use of geofence warrants

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that broad geofence surveillance constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. The ruling does not end the practice but establishes that law enforcement must clear constitutional hurdles when demanding location history from tech companies, affecting tens of thousands of criminal cases in which such warrants have already been used. The justices said police may be able to justify the warrant—that will be for lower courts to decide on a case-by-case basis.

Source: Ars Technica | 2026-06-29