Carpenter v. United States
Carpenter v. United States, 585 U.S. 296, 138 S.Ct. 2206 (2018), is a landmark United States Supreme Court case concerning the privacy of historical cell site location information (CSLI). The Court held that the government violates the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution when it accesses historical CSLI records containing the physical locations of cellphones without a search warrant.
| Carpenter v. United States | |
|---|---|
Supreme Court of the United States | |
| Argued November 29, 2017 Decided June 22, 2018 | |
| Full case name | Timothy Ivory Carpenter v. United States of America |
| Docket no. | 16-402 |
| Citations | 585 U.S. ___ (more) 138 S. Ct. 2206; 201 L. Ed. 2d 507 |
| Argument | Oral argument |
| Opinion announcement | Opinion announcement |
| Case history | |
| Prior | A jury in the District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan convicted Timothy Carpenter of armed robbery. The conviction was affirmed by Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, United States v. Carpenter, 819 F.3d 880 (6th Cir. 2016); cert. granted, 137 S. Ct. 2211 (2017). |
| Holding | |
| Government acquisition of cell-site records is a search under the Fourth Amendment, and, thus requires a warrant. | |
| Court membership | |
| |
| Case opinions | |
| Majority | Roberts, joined by Ginsburg, Breyer, Sotomayor, Kagan |
| Dissent | Kennedy, joined by Thomas, Alito |
| Dissent | Thomas |
| Dissent | Alito, joined by Thomas |
| Dissent | Gorsuch |
Prior to Carpenter, government entities could obtain cellphone location records from service providers by claiming the information was required as part of an investigation. After Carpenter, government entities are required to obtain a search warrant to access that information. Recognizing the influence of new consumer communications devices in the 2010s, the Court expanded its conceptions of constitutional rights toward the privacy of this type of data. However, the Court emphasized that the Carpenter ruling was narrowly restricted to the precise types of information and search procedures that were relevant to Carpenter's complaint.