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STATEOF WATCH
โ† the record

Flock and license plate readersAug 15, 2025Norfolk, VA

Norfolk subpoenaed the Schmidt plaintiffs' phone location records; the court ordered one set destroyed

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Defending the suit, the City sought the plaintiffs' cell-site location data, first through three subpoenas to their cellphone carriers and then through a motion to compel, which also asked each plaintiff to identify the ten people they interacted with most. The City told the court the location data was the most relevant information to the case. Magistrate Judge Lawrence R. Leonard denied the motion. Because both sides agreed that Schmidt's carrier had improperly disclosed his records in response to a subpoena, the court ordered the City to destroy them.

How we know: Order read directly (Doc. 104, read Sept 28, 2026). The order does not name the carrier or say what became of the other two subpoenas.

โ€œthe Court is not persuaded that Plaintiffs must surrender their own privacy interests to vindicate their constitutional rights.โ€
Magistrate Judge Lawrence R. Leonard, Doc. 104

Tracked case: Schmidt v. Norfolk

Machine-readable: /api/v1/claims/schmidt-csli-subpoena.json