Supreme Court Grants Review on GPS Monitoring Cases

The Supreme Court granted Certiorari in United States v. Jones (Docket: 10-1259) this morning. The issues presented are as follows:

1)Whether the warrantless use of a tracking device on petitioner’s vehicle to monitor its movements on public streets violated the Fourth Amendment.
2) Whether the government violated the respondent’s Fourth Amendment rights by installing the tracking device without a valid warrant and without his consent.

The issue is perhaps the most important privacy/Fourth Amendment case since the Katz decision involving telephones. GPS trackers have become a prevalent law enforcement tool that not only allows the police to track movements of a person, but construct meaning from those movements. Stay tuned.