PPSA to Supreme Court: Geofence Warrants Threaten Religious Liberty

​The Project for Privacy & Surveillance Accountability has filed an amicus brief in the U.S. Supreme Court case United States v. Chatrie, warning that geofence warrants threaten not only Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights, but also our religious liberty and freedom of association.

PPSA previously urged the Court to hear this case and rein in geofence warrants as modern digital general warrants. These warrants compel technology companies to turn over location data for every device within a defined geographic area. Investigators then sift through the movements of potentially hundreds –sometimes thousands – of people in hopes of identifying a suspect.

Now that the Court has granted review, PPSA explains in its amicus brief that this dragnet surveillance exposes something far more sensitive than physical location. Location data can reveal belief, identity, and association.

“Geofence warrants also threaten core First Amendment freedoms by enabling surreptitious mass intrusions into sensitive spaces like places of worship,” the PPSA brief explains. 

A geofence warrant could easily capture the identities of everyone attending a church service, synagogue gathering, mosque prayer, or religious conference. In practice, that means the government could obtain what amounts to a list of worshippers.

The facts of the case illustrate the danger. The geofence search used by investigators in Chatrie encompassed Journey Christian Church in Midlothian, Virginia, capturing the location data of anyone present at the church at that time who carried a smartphone with Google location services enabled. 

That possibility raises profound First Amendment concerns. Location data can expose deeply personal religious information, including “faith affiliation; sacrament participation; belief shifts via changing attendance or visiting a new church; or involvement in recovery ministries.” 

The Supreme Court has long recognized that government surveillance of association can chill constitutional rights. Americans who believe their religious participation may be quietly recorded by the government may think twice before attending services or participating in religious life.

That chilling effect is precisely what the First Amendment was designed to prevent.

PPSA’s brief urges the Court to recognize that geofence warrants do more than raise Fourth Amendment questions about search and seizure. They also threaten the First Amendment freedoms that protect Americans’ ability to worship, gather, and associate without government monitoring.

After all, in the digital age, tracking where people go can reveal who they are, what they believe, and whom they stand beside.
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The Supreme Court now has the opportunity to make clear that the Constitution protects those freedoms from the reach of dragnet surveillance.

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