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DOJ to Supreme Court: Approve warrantless GPS surveillance
In a court of law, the word "reasonable" is all important, what a reasonable person would do, or feel, or expect, or how a reasonable person would react to a situation. If it's not reasonable, then expect to lose. Is it reasonable to expect law enforcement, with no warrant, to shoot a GPS tracking dart at your vehicle to better monitor your movements?
The Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to resolve a conflict among federal appellate courts over the need for a warrant before attaching a GPS device to a suspect's vehicle to covertly track a person. In fact, the Justice Department said that a person traveling on public roads has "no reasonable expectation of privacy" in his movements, even if 'scientific enhancements' are used to help law enforcement with the tracking.
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed the conviction of a drug dealer, Antoine Jones, since the government had violated Jones' privacy by covertly tracking his movements by GPS, and then using that data for search warrants of those locations to find drugs. The Justice Department said that the government surveillance by GPS in the Jones' case "raises no concerns about mass, suspicionless GPS monitoring."
Also in the 121-page DOJ petition, one of the arguments the Justice Department used was cost, as in the cost to install a GPS device being insignificant because "the Los Angeles Police Department can now affix a GPS device to a passing car simply by launching a GPS-enabled dart." The sources of this information included this statement, "The darts consist of a miniaturized GPS receiver, radio transmitter, and battery embedded in a sticky compound material. When fired at a vehicle, the compound adheres to the target, and thereafter permits remote real- time tracking of the target from police headquarters."
the rest of the article here
In a court of law, the word "reasonable" is all important, what a reasonable person would do, or feel, or expect, or how a reasonable person would react to a situation. If it's not reasonable, then expect to lose. Is it reasonable to expect law enforcement, with no warrant, to shoot a GPS tracking dart at your vehicle to better monitor your movements?
The Obama administration has asked the Supreme Court to resolve a conflict among federal appellate courts over the need for a warrant before attaching a GPS device to a suspect's vehicle to covertly track a person. In fact, the Justice Department said that a person traveling on public roads has "no reasonable expectation of privacy" in his movements, even if 'scientific enhancements' are used to help law enforcement with the tracking.
Last year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit reversed the conviction of a drug dealer, Antoine Jones, since the government had violated Jones' privacy by covertly tracking his movements by GPS, and then using that data for search warrants of those locations to find drugs. The Justice Department said that the government surveillance by GPS in the Jones' case "raises no concerns about mass, suspicionless GPS monitoring."
Also in the 121-page DOJ petition, one of the arguments the Justice Department used was cost, as in the cost to install a GPS device being insignificant because "the Los Angeles Police Department can now affix a GPS device to a passing car simply by launching a GPS-enabled dart." The sources of this information included this statement, "The darts consist of a miniaturized GPS receiver, radio transmitter, and battery embedded in a sticky compound material. When fired at a vehicle, the compound adheres to the target, and thereafter permits remote real- time tracking of the target from police headquarters."
the rest of the article here