A unanimous Supreme Court ruled on Monday that law enforcement needed a warrant when it
placed a GPS tracking device to a suspected drug dealer's car.
"We hold that the government's installation of a GPS device on a target's vehicle, and its use of that
device to monitor the vehicle's movements, constitutes a search," said Justice Antonin Scalia, writing
for the majority of the court.
The case stemmed from the conviction of night club owner Antoine Jones on conspiracy to distribute
five kilograms of cocaine and 50 or more grams of cocaine base. Law enforcement had used a
variety of techniques to link him to the co-conspirators in the case including information gathered
from a global positioning system that was placed on a Jeep primarily used by Jones. Law
enforcement did not have a valid warrant to place the device on the car.
"It is important to be clear about what occurred in this case," Scalia wrote. "[T]he government
physically occupied private property for the purpose of obtaining information. "
The decision is a loss for the Obama administration, which had argued that the attachment of the
device to monitor the movements of Jones' vehicle on public streets was not a search.
"Today's decision means that the government does not get a free pass to do these sorts of activities,
because they need a warrant," said Hanni Fakhoury, staff attorney the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, a group that filed a brief supporting Jones.
"The decision is an important first step in combating the government's use of invasive and extensive
GPS surveillance on individuals. The court went half way there and said that installing the device is
unconstitutional without a warrant. We look forward to having the court address the second point
which is the actual act of surveilling an individual. "
Who's going to wind up being the first to settle a space colony, Elon Musk or maybe Sir Richard
Branson? It's probably even money!
The court today affirmed a lower court ruling that reversed Jones' conviction because of the GPS
evidence that was obtained without a warrant.
Scalia was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and
Sonia Sotomayor. Justice Samuel Alito - joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and
Elena Kagan - agreed with the conclusion of the court but wrote separately because his legal
reasoning differed from the majority.
Alito focused not on the attachment of the device, but the extent of time law enforcement monitored
Jones.
"In this case, for four weeks, law enforcement agents tracked every movement that respondent made
in the vehicle he was driving. We need not identify with precision the point at which the tracking of
this vehicle became a search, for the line was surely crossed before the four-week mark," Alito
wrote.
http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/01/gps-tracking-requires-warrant-supreme-court-rules/