Chatrie v. United States

In Chatrie v. United States, the Institute for Justice submitted an amicus brief asking the United States Supreme Court to recognize that the execution of a multi-step geofence warrant violated the Fourth Amendment.

Following a bank robbery, police obtained a multi-step warrant from a judge to conduct three searches, beginning with compelling Google to produce anonymized location information for all users who were within 150 meters of the bank during a one-hour period. The warrant then authorized police to conduct two additional searches: one seeking expanded location histories for devices the police decided to look into further, and another authorizing the police to choose which of those users’ identities would be unmasked. IJ’s brief argues the second and third searches failed to satisfy the Fourth Amendment’s probable cause and particularity requirements.