Justices limit police use of cellphone data to find crime suspects

The Supreme Court cast doubt Monday on whether police may obtain cellphone data to find crime suspects.

- DAVID G.SAVAGE

In a 6-3 decision, the justices said this location information showing where a cellphone user has traveled is personal and private and subject to the protection of the 4th Amendment's ban on unreasonable searches.

Justice Elena Kagan said these "records serve as a personal journal of a user's movements." She said the information "resembles other private materials think of emails, documents, photographs, or calendars that even if stored on Google's servers, a user reasonably views as his own... and reasonably expects to be shielded from the inquisitive eyes of the government."

Because an "individual has a legitimate expectation of privacy in his cellphone location data," she said police investigators need a valid search warrant from a magistrate.

The court stopped short of deciding the proper basis for a search warrant in such cases. Instead, the justices sent the case back to judges in Virginia.