United States v. Jones
The Court Rules that Police Need a Warrant to Attach GPS Tracking Devices to Cars
United States v. Jones was featured in Warrantless GPS Tracking, Supreme Court Debates (Jan. 2012). The following is excerpted from the summary of the majority opinion written by Justice Scalia, as prepared by the Court Reporter of Decisions: The government’s attachment of the GPS device to the vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. The Fourth Amendment protects the “right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” Here, the government’s physical intrusion on an “effect” for…