Supreme Court Edition, Chatrie v. United States: Can police use cellphone location data to catch suspects?

NBC News

23 May 2026

Police in Richmond, Virginia, had no leads after an armed bank robbery in 2019, so they got a “geofence” warrant — a novel type of warrant that allowed them to request Google location data from all devices that had been near the bank around the time of the crime. That data helped authorities identify Okello Chatrie, whom they arrested and charged in federal court. But Chatrie argues that the geofence warrant violated his Fourth Amendment protection against unreasonable searches and seizures. Host Laura Jarrett speaks with the ACLU’s Nathan Freed Wessler, who won the precedent-setting case Carpenter v. United States about whether the police’s use of digital dragnets is consistent with the Fourth Amendment. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.