Citing Orwell, Supreme Court Appears Wary of Police GPS Surveillance

http://ow.ly/7nR0O

This article was written by Marcia Coyle and was published by the National Law Journal, and appears on law.com on the LTN webpage.

This article discusses the case currently before the U.S. Supreme Court that pertains to law enforcement and their access to use GPS surveillance tracking of members of the public, and whether this violates Fourth Amendment privacy rights.

The article provides insight into some of the comments made by the high Court, during the argument over the use of GPS tracking without a warrant.  The author writes, "With multiple references to the novel "1984," a majority of the justices seemed uncomfortable with the federal government's defense of law enforcement's warrantless use of a GPS tracking device on a suspected drug dealer's car over a four-week period. But the justices also struggled to find a legal way to regulate that type of surveillance.

"If you win, there is nothing to prevent the police or the government from monitoring 24 hours a day the public movement of every citizen of the United States," suggested Justice Stephen Breyer to Deputy Solicitor General Michael Dreeben. "You suddenly produce what sounds like '1984.' What protection is there once we accept your view?""

The article further references the questioning that the opposing counsel faced over his client's position that a warrant should be required for the use of GPS tracking, "The justices gave an equally difficult time to Dreeben's opponent, Stephen Leckar of Washington's Shainis & Peltzman. Leckar argued that the case could be decided on a very narrow basis: When the police without a warrant install a GPS secretly on a car of any citizen of the United States and they want to use the evidence gained that way in a criminal trial, that is a seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment.

Leckar said, "Society does not view as reasonable the concept that the United States government has the right to take a device that enables them to engage in pervasive, limitless, cost-free surveillance, that completely replaces the human equation.""