Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-402_h315.pdf
Page Number: 49.0

22 

CARPENTER v. UNITED STATES 

KENNEDY, J., dissenting 

as  JUSTICE  ALITO’s  opinion  explains.    See  post,  at  219 
(dissenting  opinion).  Yet  the  Court  fails  even  to  mention 
the  serious  consequences  this  will  have  for  the  proper 
administration of justice.

In  short,  the  Court’s  new  and  uncharted  course  will 
inhibit law enforcement and “keep defendants and judges
guessing  for  years  to  come.”    Riley,  573  U. S.,  at  ___  (slip 
op., at 25) (internal quotation marks omitted). 

* 

* 

* 
This  case  should  be  resolved  by  interpreting  accepted
property principles as the baseline for reasonable expecta-
tions  of  privacy.  Here  the  Government  did  not  search 
anything over which Carpenter could assert ownership or
control.  Instead, it issued a court-authorized subpoena to
a  third  party  to  disclose  information  it  alone  owned  and 
controlled.  That should suffice to resolve this case. 

Having  concluded,  however,  that  the  Government 
searched Carpenter when it obtained cell-site records from 
his  cell  phone  service  providers,  the  proper  resolution  of
this  case  should  have  been  to  remand  for  the  Court  of 
Appeals  to  determine  in  the  first  instance  whether  the 
search  was  reasonable.    Most  courts  of  appeals,  believing 
themselves bound by Miller and Smith, have not grappled 
with this question.  And the Court’s reflexive imposition of 
the warrant requirement obscures important and difficult
issues,  such  as  the  scope  of  Congress’  power  to  authorize 
the Government to collect new forms of information using 
processes  that  deviate  from  traditional  warrant  proce-
dures,  and  how  the  Fourth  Amendment’s  reasonableness 
requirement  should  apply  when  the  Government  uses 
compulsory  process  instead  of  engaging  in  an  actual,
physical search.

These reasons all lead to this respectful dissent.