Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-402_h315.pdf
Page Number: 73

2 

CARPENTER v. UNITED STATES 

ALITO, J., dissenting 

corruption,  white-collar  crime,  and  many  other  offenses 
will  be  stymied.  And  what  about  subpoenas  and  other
document-production  orders  issued  by  administrative 
agencies?  See,  e.g.,  15  U. S. C.  §57b–1(c)  (Federal  Trade
Commission);  §§77s(c),  78u(a)–(b)  (Securities  and  Ex-
change  Commission);  29  U. S. C.  §657(b)  (Occupational 
Safety and Health Administration); 29 CFR §1601.16(a)(2) 
(2017) (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission).

Second,  the  Court  allows  a  defendant  to  object  to  the
search of a third party’s property.  This also is revolution-
ary.  The  Fourth  Amendment  protects  “[t]he  right  of  the 
people  to  be  secure  in  their  persons,  houses,  papers,  and 
effects” (emphasis added), not the persons, houses, papers, 
and effects of others.  Until today, we have been careful to 
heed  this  fundamental  feature  of  the  Amendment’s  text. 
This  was  true  when  the  Fourth  Amendment  was  tied  to 
property  law,  and  it  remained  true  after  Katz  v.  United 
States,  389  U. S.  347  (1967),  broadened  the Amendment’s
reach. 

By  departing  dramatically  from  these  fundamental
principles,  the  Court  destabilizes  long-established  Fourth 
Amendment  doctrine.  We  will  be  making  repairs—or 
picking up the pieces—for a long time to come. 

I 

Today  the  majority  holds  that  a  court  order  requiring 
the production of cell-site records may be issued only after 
the  Government  demonstrates  probable  cause.    See  ante, 
at 18.  That is a serious and consequential mistake.  The 
Court’s  holding  is  based  on  the  premise  that  the  order 
issued  in  this  case  was  an  actual  “search”  within  the 
meaning  of  the  Fourth  Amendment,  but  that  premise  is 
inconsistent  with  the  original  meaning  of  the  Fourth
Amendment and with more than a century of precedent.