Abstract
This Note examines geofence warrants and their ongoing threat to constitutionally protected rights such as privacy, speech, and assembly. Part I will provide background information on geofence warrants and examine the prominent justifications for the use of the warrants. Part II will examine how law enforcement’s use of geofence warrants threatens citizens’ constitutionally protected fundamental rights like privacy and reproductive rights. Specifically, Part II addresses how geofence warrants disproportionately target and affect women, people of color, and low-income individuals. Part III will detail the history of the Fourth Amendment tracing its roots to before the Founding Era then exploring applicable case law. This Part highlights how the Fourth Amendment evolved (or has not evolved) in light of technological advances. Part IV presents the current circuit split between the Fourth and Fifth Circuits at the center of this Note. In light of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent grant of certiorari in United States v. Chatrie, Part V offers an examination of the judicial landscape and discusses how the high court may rule. The Note advocates for a blanket federal ban on geofence warrants concluding it is the only way to fully protect the rights of the people as the Founders intended.
Recommended Citation
Kate P. Risser,
Reel It In: Untangling the Circuit Split on the Constitutionality of Geofence Warrants Under the Fourth Amendment,
32 Wash. & Lee J. Civ. Rts. & Soc. Just. 725
(2026).
Available at: https://scholarlycommons.law.wlu.edu/crsj/vol32/iss2/9
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