The #FifthCircuit makes 2 important holdings. First, accessing any amount of #geofence records is a search under an expansive reading of Carpenter v. United States. That's the issue that creates the split w/the Fourth Circuit in United States v. Chatrie. …Chatrie held that accessing such records is not a search in the first place, at least if the records sought are relatively limited in scale. The Fifth Circuit expressly disagrees.

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2nd, & much more dramatically, the #FifthCircuit rules that bc the database of #geofence records is so large, & bc the whole database must be scanned through to find matches, the #FourthAmendment does not allow courts to issue #warrants to collect those records. In #legal terms, it is impossible to have a warrant particular enough to authorize the #surveillance. IOW, the govt can't gather these kinds of online records at all, even w/a #warrant based on #ProbableCause.

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