Co-authored by Mary Griffin*
Early this month, the U.S. Supreme Court added Carpenter v.
United States to the roster for consideration in the upcoming
October term. Carpenter will mark the Court's first
chance to address an important, as-yet unresolved question in the
digital age: Does the Fourth Amendment require a warrant for law
enforcement officials to obtain cell site location information, or
CSLI, which reveal the location and movements of a cell phone
user?
The case will address the tension between the Fourth Amendment
and the Stored Communications Act, which Congress enacted as Title
II of the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986. The SCA
specifies procedures that law enforcement may use to obtain certain
records from third-party "electronic communication
services" or "remote computing services." But it
does not require a warrant. Since its enactment, third-party
service providers have routinely cooperated with law enforcement
requests to
