SAN FRANCISCO — Federal prosecutors and civil liberties advocates are sparring in the Northern District over the government’s long-standing practice of obtaining cellphone location information without a warrant.
U.S. Magistrate Judge Nathanael Cousins challenged prosecutors last month to explain why they should be able to obtain the records without a showing of probable cause and also invited the federal public defender for the Northern District of California to weigh in. The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation entered the fray with amicus briefs this week, seconding the federal public defender’s argument that prosecutors must show probable cause to obtain historical cell site records, which reveal the location of a mobile phone by showing which towers the device is connected to.
