Appeals Court Balks at Answering 4th Amendment Geofence Question

The full Fourth Circuit appeared reluctant to find geofence warrants unconstitutional during oral arguments Thursday in a case challenging the government’s use of mobile-device location data after a bank robbery, signaling an ongoing circuit split over the question.

The US Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit re-heard arguments in an appeal brought by Okello Chatrie, who challenged a lower court’s denial of his motion to suppress location-based data as evidence, claiming police’s collection methods were overbroad and unconstitutional. Chatrie pleaded guilty in 2022 to robbing a bank after the evidence—attained using a geofence warrant which compels tech companies to ...