Appellate court: no warrant needed to access personal cell-phone location data from telcos

In an opinion that closely tracked and relied heavily on the US 5th Circuit Court of Appeals case this summer authorizing cell-phone location tracking without a warrant, the Texas 14th Court of Appeals recently said in Barfield v. State that law enforcement needn't secure a warrant for cell-phone tracking data obtained from a phone company. Not a surprising ruling given the Fifth Circuit's stance and Texas courts' acceptance of the spurious "third-party doctrine" - a US Supreme Court-created loophole to the Fourth Amendment manufactured in the '70s. (In New Jersey, where courts have never accepted the third-party doctrine, their state Supreme Court recently found a warrant is required in such cases.) But the opinion shows why the Texas Legislature needs to step in to protect Texans' privacy, since neither federal nor state courts so far seem willing to do so.

Regular readers know state Rep. Bryan Hughes and state Sen. Juan "Chuy" Hinojosa came very close to passing such a bill in the 83rd Texas legislative session (2013); in 2015, let's hope the Lege can push the idea through to the finish line.