Carpenter v. United States
United States Supreme Court
585 U.S. 296, 138 S. Ct. 2206, 201 L. Ed. 2d 507 (2018)
- Written by Rose VanHofwegen, JD
Facts
Police suspected Timothy Carpenter (defendant) of involvement in several robberies. The government obtained a court order under the Stored Communications Act allowing it to access cell-site-location-information (CSLI) records from Carpenter’s wireless carriers. The order required the government to show reasonable grounds the records were material to an ongoing investigation. The government was not required to show probable cause as would be required for a search warrant. The records identified cell sites Carpenter’s phone used to make or receive calls over a four-month period. That data effectively tracked Carpenter’s movements by logging his location about 100 times a day, placing him near four of the robberies. Carpenter moved to suppress the data at trial, arguing that the warrantless acquisition of the records violated the Fourth Amendment. The district court denied Carpenter’s motion, and Carpenter was convicted. The court of appeals affirmed, holding that Carpenter did not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in location information he shared with his wireless carriers. The Supreme Court granted review.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Roberts, C.J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 805,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.
