Golden Gate Legal Review publishes commentary and analysis on the constitutional and statutory questions moving through the federal courts and the California legislature — privacy and the Fourth Amendment, housing, criminal justice, immigration, labor, and the law of emerging technology. The Review offers analysis, not legal advice.
The first geofence-warrant case to reach the Supreme Court was decided on June 29, 2026: acquiring a person's Google location data is a Fourth Amendment search, the Court held, leaving the warrant's reasonableness for the Fourth Circuit on remand.
A geofence warrant searches a crowd to find a suspect, inverting probable cause and particularity. How Carpenter, the Chatrie circuit split, and the Supreme Court's June 2026 decision settle whether the acquisition is a search — and what the Court left open.
| Case / Bill Reference | Subject | Status | Last Action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Chatrie v. United States (No. 25-112)U.S. Supreme Court · Argued Apr 27, 2026 | Privacy | DECIDED | 06.29.26 |
| Cal. AB 1157 (Affordable Rent Act)Cal. Assembly · Judiciary Cmte | Housing | FAILED — DIED IN COMMITTEE | 01.31.26 |
| Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (H.R. 4639)U.S. Congress · H.R. 4639 (118th) | Privacy | PASSED HOUSE 2024 · REINTRODUCED 2026 | 04.17.24 |
Recent
Commentary
Justice Jackson and the Evolving Interpretive Wars
The landscape of judicial interpretation at the Supreme Court is in constant flux, a dynamic highlighted by a recent SCOTUSblog analysis focusing on Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson’s emerging…
The Court Lifts the Cap on Coordinated Party Spending
The Supreme Court has struck down one of the last surviving spending limits in federal campaign-finance law. On June 30, 2026, in National Republican Senatorial Committee v. Federal…
AB 1157 Stalls: California’s Rent Cap Holds for 2026
AB 1157 would have cut California's rent cap to 2% plus CPI, but it died in committee in January 2026. The existing 5%-plus-CPI cap under Civ. Code 1947.12 stands.
ACA 6 Returns Forced-Prison-Labor Question to the 2026 Ballot
California's ACA 6 would delete the constitution's punishment exception after Prop 6 failed in 2024, as AB 247 raises incarcerated-firefighter wages to $7.25.