Case of the Week: Cell Site Data

This week the Fifth Circuit of the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas handed down an important ruling on the Fourth Amendment. The case in question was a dispute between federal law enforcement and a cell phone service provider. Law enforcement had requested the phone records and service information of a particular cell phone from the phone provider pursuant to the Stored Communications Act but the provider refused to provide the records. The federal magistrate who reviewed the case ruled that the phone provider must give law enforcement the subscriber data but did not compel them to to produce cell site data, ruling that "compelled warrant less disclosure of cell site data violates the Fourth Amendment" (IN RE: APPLICATION OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA FOR HISTORICAL CELL SITE DATA. United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. 30 July 2013.)



After the ruling, law enforcement appealed the decision in the Fifth Circuit Court. In a 2-1 ruling, the Fifth Circuit Court overturned the original decision and ruled that law enforcement authorities do not need a warrant to obtain detailed cell phone records. The Court explained the decision by stating that they believed the magistrate judge had incorrectly treated the data as tracking information when they believed the data should be treated as businesses records of the cell phone provider.

The ruling also went against the earlier ruling of the Third District Court. In a earlier but similar case, the Third District Court held that cell phone data searches are protected under the Fourth Amendment and therefore law enforcement agencies who request such information must provide probable cause.

This court decision is an important one because it defines the parameters of our Fourth Amendment rights.

If you are interested in reading more of the Case of the Week series, you can click here for my post on Ineffective Assistance of Counsel.