The 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concluded Tuesday that investigators do not need a search warrant to obtain cellphone location records in criminal prosecutions. The decision overturned a three-judge panel of the same court.
In the 9-2 decision, the 11th Circuit decided that authorities properly got 67 days’ worth of records from MetroPCS for Miami suspect Quartavious Davis by using a court order with a lower burden of proof. Davis had no expectation of privacy to his records, which were used as key evidence to convict him of a string of armed robberies. The records established his location near certain cellphone towers.
Davis was sentenced to 162 years in prison.
“We find no reason to conclude that cellphone users lack facts about the functions of cell towers or about telephone providers’ recording cell tower usage,” Circuit Judge Frank M. Hull, who wrote for the majority, said. “This cell tower method of call connecting does not require a different constitutional result just because the telephone company has decided to automate wirelessly.”
The two judges who dissented contended that the Fourth Amendment requires probable cause and a search warrant for such records. Some judges who were in the majority agreed in separate opinions that the U.S. Supreme Court should make the final decision — which means an appeal to the high court is likely.
Davis’ attorney David O. Markus called the dissent “breathtaking,” arguing that it means government investigators could now have access to all kinds of personal data stored by a third party such as Facebook posts or Amazon purchases without a search warrant.
The judges said those who want an existing law allowing for access to information possessed by third parties for criminal prosecutions changed should look toward Congress and state legislatures.
(h/t The Associated Press)
