Upcoming Supreme Court Argument--Stored Communications Act

Attorneys interested in electronic communications privacy issues should take note of a case currently under consideration by the Supreme Court that implicates the Stored Communications Act (SCA).
The court will hear oral argument this term in Carpenter v. United States. Carpenter concerns whether Fourth Amendment protections apply to cell phone “transactional records,” which reveal the location and movements of a cell phone. The case is important because it will reconcile a conflict between the long-standing “third party” doctrine and recent cases recognizing privacy interests in electronic data.

In Carpenter, federal law enforcement obtained the transactional records of defendant Carpenter’s cell phones. Federal agents used the data to determine that Carpenter’s cell phones connected with towers near robberies they were investigating.
Law enforcement obtained those records through a court order under Section 2703 of the SCA. That provision allows the government to compel disclosure of communication “transactional records” based on “reasonable grounds to believe” that the information is relevant to an investigation. This standard is less stringent than the Fourth Amendment’s requirement of a warrant supported by “probable cause.”
In the trial court, the defendant moved to suppress the service records, arguing that the more stringent Fourth Amendment standard should apply to the records. That motion was denied, and Carpenter was convicted.
On appeal, the Sixth Circuit also rejected the defendant’s Fourth Amendment argument, finding that the defendant had no reasonable expectation of privacy in his cell phone records under the “third party” doctrine.