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Monday, October 17, 2011

Law - U.S. v. Jones, the GPS tracking case, is scheduled for argument in early November

Here is the SCOTUSblog page collecting documents on the case, which is to be argued Nov. 8th. The 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.
Here is a long list of earlier ILB entries on GPS tracking.

How Appealing today points to two new stories on this issue. From the Detroit Free Press, a long story by L.L. Brasier that begins:

Defense attorney Randall Lewis was representing a man charged in the fatal shooting of a Livonia police officer when he discovered something surprising: Livonia police had known his client's exact location at all times in the 11 days leading up to the shooting.

"I mean, it was like they knew what this guy was having for dinner," Lewis said.

Police knew Terry Bowling's whereabouts, Lewis learned, because they had surreptitiously planted a GPS tracking device under the back bumper of his Ford Taurus. Bowling has been a suspect in several home invasions.

"I was completely surprised since there was no mention of it in the police reports," Lewis said. "And my first thought was: 'Where's the warrant?' "

There was no warrant.

Bowling's case and hundreds like it are at the center of a growing legal storm set to land before the U.S. Supreme Court on Nov. 8. The issue: Can law enforcement agencies use GPS devices to track citizens without their knowledge?

The story concludes:
"There has to be judicial oversight," Lewis said. "We don't live in a police state, so look: Why not just get a warrant? That's all we're really talking about. When you knock out judicial oversight, you are moving away from democracy."
Sarah Peters has a long entry in The Hill's technology blog, Hillicon Valley that shows how the issue is bringing diverse groups together - it begins:
The American Civil Liberties Union, a Muslim-American group and gun-rights activists are urging the Supreme Court to rule against the government in a case involving law enforcement and privacy rights.

The high court will decide whether warrant-less GPS tracking by law enforcement is a violation of Fourth Amendment protections from unreasonable search and seizure. The U.S. vs. Jones case is scheduled for argument in early November.

The ACLU, Council on American-Islamic Relations and Gun Owners of America have all filed friend-of-the-court briefs in support of Jones in the case, along with other organizations.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on October 17, 2011 09:17 AM
Posted to Courts in general