Supreme Court GPS Tracking Ruling of the Day: The Supreme Court has ruled unanimously that law enforcement agencies need a probable-cause warrant to attach a GPS tracking device to a vehicle.
Justice Scalia wrote the majority opinion in United States v. Jones, explaining that when the government “obtains information by physically intruding on a constitutionally protected area” like a car, it qualifies as a search under the Fourth Amendment, and thus requires a warrant.
In the decision (PDF), the court threw out a life sentence for a drug dealer who had been the subject of a 28-day warrantless GPS surveillance operation by the FBI.
Although the justices all agreed the surveillance in this case should not have been allowed, a minority opinion by Justice Samuel Alito argued that GPS tracking decisions should be made based on the defendant’s “reasonable expectation of privacy,” instead of requiring a warrant every time.
In arguing the case, the government told the Supreme Court that GPS trackers are used “thousands of times” every year, and said it could even place GPS trackers on the vehicles of all members of the Court without a warrant.
[wired]
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