Legal authorities do not need a warrant to obtain records detailing a cellphone's location, a federal appeals court in New Orleans has ruled, overturning a trial judge who said subscribers enjoy a Fourth Amendment privacy interest in the data.
A divided U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit ruling on Tuesday marked a major win for the U.S. Justice Department, which fought to salvage the ability of federal agents to obtain historical cell site location data via a court order, instead of a warrant under the higher probable-cause standard.
