Supreme Court Rules That Government Use of GPS Can Violate Fourth Amendment

摘要

A unanimous U.S. Supreme Court ruled Jan. 23 that the government's attachment of a Global Positioning System (GPS) to a person's vehicle and its use of the device to monitor the movements of the vehicle constitute a search under the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Privacy and civil liberties advocates hailed the narrowly tailored decision and said they were pleased that, in concurring opinions, a majority of the court indicated their support for perhaps going even further in protecting the rights of Americans from government surveillance. During oral arguments in the case (United States v. Jones, no. 10-1259) in November, justices seemed to sympathize with attorneys for both sides as they were asked to decide whether police violated the Fourth Amendment by attaching a GPS device to a suspect's car without a valid warrant and tracking his movements for 28 days (TR, Nov. 15,2011).