DOJ urges Supreme Court to uphold legality of geofence warrants

The Justice Department argued Wednesday that geofence warrants are legal law enforcement tools that are “fully consistent with the Constitution,” as the widely used practice in criminal investigations is set to face scrutiny before the Supreme Court in April.

A geofence warrant is a request made by the government to a technology company, such as Google, in this case, for information about devices that were physically within a certain geographic parameter during a certain period of time. In the case of Chatrie v. United States, the Supreme Court will examine Okello Chatrie’s claim that the Justice Department’s use of a geofence warrant violates the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. In Chatrie’s case, the data from the geofence warrant were able to connect him to a bank robbery, for which he was convicted.

The Justice Department filed a brief to the high court defending the constitutionality of geofence