The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that police must get a search warrant before using GPS technology to track criminal suspects.I would have thought it would have been another 5-4 or maybe 6-3 case, with the usual cliques arguing that the government is free to monitor whoever they want and so on.
Here is another wrinkle: The cops were monitoring that dude for four weeks, which the Supremes said was far too long without a warrant. They declined to address what shorter period of time would be OK.
So the court stuck to narrow grounds. Unlike in Citizens United, where the nuts in black took a narrow question and used it to subvert the entire political system.
1 comment:
According to Erin Kerr, this may not be an entirely accurate evaluation of the Jones ruling.
Kerr's interpretation
is that the ruling merely defined the placement of a GPS tracking device on Jones' automobile was a search, without ruling if it was a reasonable or unreasonable search.
The Justices said that leaving it on there for four months was too long, but didn't define what length of time might be acceptible.
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