US Supreme Court Rules On GPS Use
The official vote in today’s US Supreme Court ruling on police use of a GPS device to track a suspect was 5-4, denying such use without a warrant as a violation of a right to privacy. In reality, the vote…
The official vote in today’s US Supreme Court ruling on police use of a GPS device to track a suspect was 5-4, denying such use without a warrant as a violation of a right to privacy. In reality, the vote was 9-0 because the dissenters would have based the same decision on different reasoning.
The majority opinion held that the US citizens have a right to privacy based on Fourth Amendment language guaranteeing protection in “persons, houses, papers, and effects” against unreasonable government search. The majority said that a person’s automobile was private property and the ban was extensible to such property.
The dissenters went a step further, holding that use of GPS device without a warrant was not a mere property right, but violation of a US citizen’s reasonable expectation of privacy. Justice Scalia, who wrote the majority opinion, noted that it was not necessary to use the broader test because the violation of property rights was by itself enough to invoke the Fourth Amendment.
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Paul Ausick has been writing for 247Wallst.com for more than a decade. He has written extensively on investing in the energy, defense, and technology sectors. In a previous life, he wrote technical documentation and managed a marketing communications group in Silicon Valley.
He has a bachelor's degree in English from the University of Chicago and now lives in Montana, where he fishes for trout in the summer and stays inside during the winter.
