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  • Status: draft
  • Sources: 2
  • Relationships: 3
  • Research debt items: 1
  • Last verified: 2026-06-19

Carpenter v. United States

Summary

Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 296 (2018), held that the Government's acquisition of historical cell-site location records was a Fourth Amendment search requiring a warrant supported by probable cause in ordinary circumstances.

Verified Facts

  • The case concerned historical cell-site location information obtained from wireless carriers under the Stored Communications Act.
  • The official syllabus states that the Government's acquisition of Carpenter's cell-site records was a Fourth Amendment search.
  • The Court held that the Government must generally obtain a warrant supported by probable cause before acquiring such records.
  • The Court noted that case-specific exceptions, such as exigent circumstances, may support a warrantless search in some situations.
  • The Court declined to extend Smith and Miller to the collection of cell-site location records in the circumstances presented.
  • The Court held that a Stored Communications Act court order requiring only reasonable grounds under 18 U.S.C. § 2703(d) is not a permissible mechanism for accessing historical cell-site records in the ordinary case.

Historical Context

The case arose from federal robbery prosecutions in which prosecutors obtained months of location records for the defendant's cell phone.

The Court treated historical cell-site location records as presenting greater privacy concerns than some prior third-party records cases and concluded that an individual maintains a reasonable expectation of privacy in the record of physical movements captured through CSLI. The opinion limits, rather than abolishes, the third-party doctrine in this digital records context and leaves room for warrant exceptions in specific situations.

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Research Debt

  • Add later digital search and surveillance cases with primary sources.