http://theadvocate.posterous.com The online presence of the Kentucky Department of Public Advocacy journal posterous.com Mon, 23 Jan 2012 08:28:00 -0800 US Supreme Court Issues Opinion in Jones - GPS case http://theadvocate.posterous.com/us-supreme-court-issues-opinion-in-jones-gps http://theadvocate.posterous.com/us-supreme-court-issues-opinion-in-jones-gps

The opinion is available here.

SCOTUS blog information page on Jones

Issue: Whether the Constitution allows police to put a tracking device on a car without either a warrant or the owner's permission; and whether the Constitution is violated when police use the tracking device to keep track of the car's whereabouts.

Supreme Court limits police use of GPS to track suspects - Chicago Tribune

The Supreme Court for the first time ruled on Monday that police attachment of a GPS device to monitor a suspect's vehicle was a search protected by constitutional privacy rights, a test case involving new surveillance technology.

The high court's ruling was a defeat for the Obama administration, which defended the use of global positioning system devices without a warrant and without a person's knowledge as a legal way to monitor a vehicle on public streets.

The justices upheld a precedent-setting ruling by an appeals court that the police must first obtain a warrant to use a GPS device for an extended period of time to covertly follow a suspect.

The high court unanimously held the government's placement of the GPS device to a vehicle and using the device to monitor the vehicle's movement was covered by U.S. constitutional protections against unreasonable searches and seizures of evidence.

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