US court agrees with feds: Warrants aren’t needed for cell-site location data

(credit: Jeff Kubina)

Another federal appeals court is siding with the Obama administration's position that court warrants are not required to track a suspect's cell-site location. The Wednesday decision (PDF) by the 6th US Circuit Court of Appeals adds to the growing number of federal appeals court rulings siding with the government, likely meaning the US Supreme Court won't weigh into the legal thicket any time soon. Only one federal circuit has sided against the government, but that ruling was set aside, (PDF) and a new decision is pending after the court accepted the government's petition to rehear the dispute.

In the case decided Wednesday by the Cincinnati-based appeals court, a three-judge panel unanimously upheld the location data evidence of two men convicted of aiding and abetting a string of robberies. The data placed the men near the robberies of Radio Shack and T-Mobile stores in and around Detroit. The men believed that a probable-cause warrant under the Fourth Amendment was required for the government to access their location data. The appeals court disagreed, and it accepted the legal standard requiring a judge to sign off on the tracking if the government asserts the data is "relevant and material to an ongoing criminal investigation."

The decision sides with the other circuit courts, namely the 5th and 11th, that have ruled the same. The 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals' decision that went against the government was re-argued last month and a decision is pending. Without a circuit split, the Supreme Court is likely to stay away from the dispute.

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