Timothy Carpenter was a suspect arrested in connection with a series of robberies that took place at RadioShack and T-Mobile storefronts in Michigan in 2011. In their attempt to catch Carpenter, FBI officials submitted a request to obtain cellphone data from wireless carriers after obtaining a court order from a magistrate judge under the Stored Communications Act.
The data was handed over and Carpenter was arrested and convicted in 2013. However, no warrant was ever obtained for the cellphone record requests, and the American Civil Liberties Union is arguing that information that helped put Carpenter behind bars was collected unconstitutionally.
Speaking to Radio Sputnik's Fault Lines with Garland Nixon and Lee Stranahan, Lawrence Hurley, a Reuters correspondent, sheds light on the case and the Fourth Amendment's shifty role in privacy.
"Based on the arguments yesterday, there probably is a majority on the Supreme Court that say that they should have to get a warrant," Hurley said. "And that would be, you know, a sort of win for privacy advocates and it could help set a precedent that would apply in the future."
On the surface there's the Fourth Amendment, but it isn't a full solution, says Hurley.
The Fourth Amendment typically protects against unreasonable searches and seizures in your home, he says; it doesn't carry the same weight if a person is walking about in public.
"A cell phone location can be sort of compared with the cops basically following you around, which they can do… and they can also use other evidence to find a way," Hurley told Stranahan. "[They can find out] whether your car went through a toll road or some like that, so there are other ways the police can do this and that sort of privacy protections are a little different."
Carpenter v. US is expected to be ruled on during the first half of 2018, the Verge reports.
