Gov. Needs Warrant For Cell Tower Location Info: Supreme Court

The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that authorities generally need a search warrant supported by probable cause to get location information from cellphone towers.

The case before the Supreme Court was brought by Timothy Carpenter. Authorities were able to track Carpenter's locations over 127 days through information provided by wireless carriers. Carpenter argued that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated when the government obtained the records without a warrant.

Carpenter was convicted after authorities were able to show that he had been near the location of four Radio Shack robberies in the Detroit area at the time that they occurred. He is currently serving a 116-year prison sentence.

Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the majority opinion for the 5-4 court decision.

"Given the unique nature of cell phone location records, the fact that the information is held by a third party does not by itself overcome the user's claim to Fourth Amendment protection," the opinion states. The court wrote that an individual maintains a legitimate expectation of privacy in the recording of physical movements captured through cell phone tracking data.

The court said that though location data from cellphones is stored by a third party, it does not make it any less deserving of Fourth Amendment protection.

In some cases however, the court said a warrantless search may be supported. The court said one well-recognized exception would be when the "the exigencies of the situation" make the needs of law enforcement so compelling that a warrantless search is objectively reasonable under the Fourth Amendment. Such cases include situations like pursuing a fleeing suspect or preventing the imminent destruction of evidence.

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