Chatrie v. United States · ¶148

This unshackling of Carpenter will unleash the very upheaval in Fourth Amendment law that Carpenter disclaimed. See 585 U. S., at 319 (stating that its holding would apply “only . . . in the rare case”). Today’s decision makes clear that the last two centuries of Fourth Amendment search doctrine simply do not apply to digital-age methods of tracking a suspect’s location. And although the Court frames its holding as concerning only “location information,” ante, at 29, that qualification “might as well be written on the dissolving paper sold in magic shops,” Fulton v. Philadelphia, 593 U. S. 522, 551 (2021) (ALITO, J., concurring in judgment). If past is prologue, the parchment limits on today’s holding will fade away just as quickly as Carpenter’s have.

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