US Supreme Court rules geofence warrants violate Fourth Amendment privacy rights

The US Supreme Court has sharply limited law enforcement's use of geofence warrants, ruling they violate Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches. These warrants had allowed police to obtain broad location data from tech companies like Google to identify individuals present near crime scenes. The court held that mass automated location tracking requires constitutional safeguards, even when the data is stored by third-party companies. The ruling significantly curtails a surveillance tool that detectives had widely relied upon in criminal investigations.