The Infinite Brief

Advocates hailed the 5-4 ruling as a victory for personal privacy rights in an age when digital technology and the widespread use of mobile devices could create easy paths for law enforcement or other state bodies into the most intimate corners of private life.

The court ruling left open that collecting less than seven days of cell-site records may not be considered a search.

In deciding the case, the justices weighed traditional privacy protections against the unprecedented volume of personal data generated by the use of cellphones and other mobile devices that communicate with cellphone towers, which in turn collect reams of data retained by commercial service providers.