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The U.S. Supreme Court is considering whether a geofence warrant compelling Google to share location data from cell phones near a crime scene constitutes an unlawful search under the Fourth Amendment.
The Supreme Court is reviewing cases that test the Department of Homeland Security's authority to terminate Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for migrants from countries including Haiti and Syria.
A central legal question in the Supreme Court cases regarding Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is whether federal courts have the authority to review the DHS Secretary's decision to terminate a country's designation.
Leon Fresco predicts there will be five Supreme Court votes (Jackson, Kagan, Sotomayor, Barrett, and Roberts) to allow judicial review of whether the DHS followed Congressionally mandated procedures when terminating TPS.
A Supreme Court ruling in favor of the government could grant Customs and Border Protection the authority to admit lawful permanent residents as "parolees" and later revoke that status for any reason.
The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the government cannot subject certain immigrants to mandatory detention without the possibility of a bond hearing.
The Trump administration reinterpreted immigration law to apply mandatory detention to individuals who entered the country illegally and were apprehended later, not just those caught at the border.
The Fifth and Eighth Circuit Courts of Appeals have sided with the Trump administration's policy of mandatory detention for immigrants apprehended after entering the country illegally, creating a circuit split with the Second Circuit.
The Department of Homeland Security is currently shut down due to a lack of appropriations, stemming from a dispute over operational guidelines for agencies like ICE and CBP.
Chief Justice John Roberts expressed concern that geofence warrants could be used for surveillance of sensitive locations such as churches or political rallies.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett questioned whether the government's position on geofence warrants would mean that tracking an individual's location inside a private home would not be considered a search.
Google collects a massive amount of location data from users who have phones with location services enabled.