A U.S. Court of Appeals decision this week in the 9th District affirmed a previous ruling and stated that the police can track your vehicle with a GPS device and without a warrant. Yes, that’s right—they can come into your driveway at night, attach a GPS and track you–every day, wherever you go.
The argument was that attaching a GPS device violated the 4th amendment protections against “unreasonable searches and seizures”. The Court ruled that because you have no expectation of privacy when you are in your car and the police could just as well follow you wherever you went, a GPS device was not unconstitutional.
Another issue was whether the police violated the defendant’s rights when they went onto his driveway in order to attach the monitor. The Court determined that since his driveway was open to strangers (delivery people, neighbors, etc.) that he didn’t have a legal expectation of privacy there either.
Interestingly, and a fact not missed on Time Magazine writer Adam Cohen, the only people who would have an expectation of privacy on their driveway would be those people who could afford to erect walls, security systems, or gates that encompassed that area. In other words—only rich people.
Chief Judge Alex Kozinki wrote in his dissent of the ruling that diversity is largely talk when it comes to the judiciary. “No truly poor people are appointed as federal judges, or as state judges for that matter.” He went on to say the judges who agreed with the ruling were practicing “cultural elitism”.
Because it was in the Night Circuit Court of Appeals, the ruling technically only applies to courts within that jurisdiction—including California and eight other neighboring states. However, there’s little question that this won’t be the last of such rulings and challenges to follow across the country.
As a matter of fact, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit ruled in direct opposition to the Ninth Circuit ruling and said a warrant was required for such GPS monitoring. There’s no doubt this issue will eventually make it to the Supreme Court and its opinion is already highly anticipated.
It seems at first glance that allowing the police to track people via GPS without their knowledge and without a warrant is something out of a work of police-state futuristic science fiction. But, it’s here and it’s now.
Knowing just how the 4th Amendment protects you against unreasonable searches and seizures and exactly what qualifies as “reasonable” isn’t as easy as one might think. However, if it can be proven that a search was unconstitutional, the evidence seized from that search may be thrown out in court.
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