Judges have long wrestled with applying the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure to modern technology, and one of the more interesting examples of this just happened in a Jan. 6 case.
The case, out of federal district court in Washington, involves “geofencing” warrants, which are used to identify people within a certain area and time range. Authorities use them when they believe a crime has been committed and want to identify the people who committed it. They’ve become a useful, if controversial, law enforcement tool that capitalizes on our reliance on smartphones. The government has used the technique to look for bank robbers, for example.
As NBC News’ Jon Schuppe reported this week, geofencing opponents have argued that these warrants violate the Constitution’s Fourth Amendment protections, even sweeping up innocent people in the process. Privacy advocates have raised concerns about these warrants being used to investigate abortions after…
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