Last month the Supreme Court of the United States handed down an important opinion concerning the Fourth Amendment and the use of Global Positioning System (GPS) tracking devices to track and monitor suspected criminals, United States v. Jones, 132 S. Ct. 945 (U.S. 2012). The defendant in this monumental case was Antoine Jones, suspected of drug trafficking by the FBI. Id. at *2. For 28 days, the government tracked Jones using a GPS installed under his Jeep. Id. The District court convicted Jones and sentenced him to life imprisonment. Id. at *3. The Supreme Court held that such attachment of a GPS device and the subsequent tracking was a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment: “[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, house, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.” Id. Thus, the Court affirmed the D.C. Circuit’s reversal of Jones’s conviction “because admission of the evidence obtained by warrantless use of the GPS device, which, it said, violated the Fourth Amendment.” Id. at *3, 8.
If you have any questions or concerns regarding what you consider a violation of your Fourth Amendment rights, contact Lindsey Erickson or Dionne Scherff with Erickson Scherff, LLC at www.ericksonscherff.com for counsel and assessment of your claim or charges.
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