Carpenter v. United States (16-402)
argument 16-402Carpenter v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
1h 22m
6 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 6 days ago
official recording ↗
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the central legal issue regarding warrantless cell site location data?
We'll hear argument this morning in Case 16-402, Carpenter v. United States. Before we commence, though, I'd like to advise counsel that I'll provide an additional ten minutes of them to their argument time. I don't think you'll have trouble filling it. Mr. Wessler.
Thank you, Mr. Chief Justice, and may it please the Court. At issue in this case is the government's warrantless collection of 127 days of petitioners' cell site location information, revealing his locations, movements, and associations over a long period. As in Jones, the collection of this information is a search, as it disturbs people's longstanding practical expectation that their longer-term movements in public and private spaces will remain private.
So what is the rule that you want us to adopt in this case, assuming that we keep... Miller, Miller, and Smith v. Maryland on the
books. The rule we seek is that longer-term periods or aggregations of cell site location information is a search and requires a warrant. We are not asking the Court to overturn those older cases. We think that the lesson to be drawn from Riley and Jones and Kylo is that any extension of pre-digital precedence to these kinds of digital data must rest on their own bottom,
How would you distinguish Miller?
Miller involved more limited records. Certainly they could reveal some sensitive information, but more limited records. And as this Court held, they were voluntarily conveyed in that they were created by the passing of negotiable instruments into the stream of commerce to transfer funds. What we have here is both more sensitive and less voluntary.
Why is it more sensitive? Why is cell site location information more sensitive to than bank records, which particularly today, when a lot of people don't use cash much, if at all, a bank record will disclose purchases. It will not only disclose everything that the person buys. It will not only disclose locations, but it will disclose things that can be very sensitive.
I absolutely agree, Justice Alito, that the information in bank records can be quite sensitive. But what it cannot do is chart a minute-by-minute account of a person's locations and movements and associations over a long period, regardless of what the person is doing at any given
moment. No, I understand that. But why is that more sensitive than bank records that show For example, periodicals to which a person subscribes or hotels where a person has stayed or entertainment establishments that a person has visited and all sorts of other things.
Particularly because the information in the bank records that Justice Alito referred to are not publicly known. Your whereabouts are publicly known. People can see you. Surveillance officers can follow you. It seems to me that this is much less private than the case that Justice Alito is discussing.
Well, I don't agree, Your Honor, for the following reason. When a person is engaged in a financial transaction, passing a check, a negotiable instrument, that's an interpersonal transaction where a person has full knowledge that they are putting something into the stream of commerce to transfer funds directed at their bank. As the five concurring justices indicated, made clear in Jones. Although we may, when we step outside, have a reasonable expectation that someone may see where we go on a short period, nobody has expected in a free society that our longer-term locations will be aggregated and tracked in the way that they can be here.
You keep emphasizing longer-term.
Yes, I was going
to ask about that. Suppose what was sought here was the a CSLI information for the day of each robbery, just one day, the day of each robbery. Does that qualify as short-term in your view that would not violate the Fourth Amendment?
So, Your Honor, the rule we proposed would be a single 24-hour period, contiguous 24-hour period. Now, the only other court to address this question is
the... I'm sorry. In which way are you talking about? What rule?
Sorry. So... We don't think the Court needs to draw a bright line here to define exactly where the line between short and long term is.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the central legal issue regarding warrantless cell site location data?
0:00–9:56
2
How does the petitioner propose a rule for long‑term CSLI records?
9:56–22:18
3
Why are cell site records considered more sensitive than bank records?
22:18–31:57
4
What is the proposed 24‑hour “bright line” for lawful data collection?
31:57–40:46
5
How have advances in cell‑tower technology affected privacy expectations?
40:46–51:19
6
What role does the third‑party doctrine and property rights play in this case?
51:19–1:01:04
7
How do congressional statutes like the Stored Communications Act influence the Fourth Amendment analysis?
1:01:04–1:10:54
8
What are the broader implications and unresolved questions for future digital privacy cases?
1:10:54–1:22:01