'Tower Dump' Warrants Ruled Unconstitutional
alternative_right shares a report from The Hill: A federal judge in Mississippi ruled Wednesday that "tower dump" warrants are unconstitutional, declining to reverse a lower court decision refusing the government's request to obtain the search warrants in a series of violent crime investigations. A "tower dump" involves cellphone companies providing law enforcement with access to the time and…
In a recent ruling, a federal judge in Mississippi declared "tower dump" warrants to be unconstitutional, maintaining the stance of a lower court that had previously denied the government's request to obtain these search warrants in several violent crime investigations. A "tower dump" pertains to cellphone companies granting law enforcement access to time and location data of all mobile devices connected to particular cell towers within a specific time frame.
Law enforcement had sought approval for multiple such search warrants in connection with criminal investigations into gang-related activity in the Jackson, Mississippi area last year, arguing that the data could potentially identify all individuals involved, especially in cases involving unknown suspects. A magistrate judge initially dismissed the applications, stating that "tower dumps" constitute impermissible general warrants.
The district judge subsequently agreed with this assessment. The order frequently quoted the Supreme Court's recent decision in Chatrie v United States, where the majority affirmed that geofence warrants necessitate constitutional privacy protections. "Judge Carlton Reeves wrote in a 30-page order that 'with this information, the Government asserts it will be able to identify all potential suspects.'
Despite this assertion, law enforcement would also possess access to the cellular records of countless individuals, the overwhelming majority of whom were merely passing by a location at an inappropriate time." "That is an unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment," concluded Judge Reeves in his 30-page order.
Written by urgent.news from Slashdot's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — it may contain errors, so check the original before relying on it.
