A good decision from the Supreme Court

Puppycow

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Puppycow
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Justices Rein In Police on GPS Trackers

WASHINGTON—The Supreme Court ruled Monday that police violated the Constitution when they attached a Global Positioning System tracker to a suspect's vehicle without a valid search warrant, voting unanimously in one of the first major cases to test privacy rights in the digital era.
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Seems like a no-brainer to me. Glad it was unanimous.
 
This could really obstruct law enforcement when it's dealing with groups of people, for example organized criminal syndicates...
 
In the other thread, I explained why I find the decision problematic.

Basically, by saying that there's no need to apply the Katz test, they're saying any trespass is a search. If it's a search because they used the device to gather information, then Katz should apply, and the nature of the information should be tested (to see whether or not there is a reasonable expectation of privacy).
 
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Cyrus said:
This could really obstruct law enforcement when it's dealing with groups of people, for example organized criminal syndicates...
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If they are investigating the mob, or any other criminal gang, they can probably get search warrant to do that. The issue here is can they do that without a warrant.
 
Puppycow said:
If they are investigating the mob, or any other criminal gang, they can probably get search warrant to do that. The issue here is can they do that without a warrant.
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Not really. The issue the decision was based on was not any of the arguments raised by Jones' lawyer. It was only the issue the court added upon certification of the case: whether or not it was legal for police to attach the device without a warrant. The court said it was not legal--it was a trespass--and therefore they didn't need to examine the nature of the surveillance (whether or not a warrant was necessary for using the device to track the movements of the vehicle).

FWIW, the police can conduct investigations without a warrant. The 4th Amendment protects us from unreasonable searches and seizures only. I would bet that the vast majority of police criminal investigation is grunt work that doesn't require a warrant.
 
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