- Antoine Jones, owner and operator of a night club in Washington D.C., was suspected of drug trafficking
- In 2005, the Government granted the U.S. District Court of the District of Columbia a warrant to place a GPS on Jones' vehicle. The GPS had to be placed within 10 days and within the District of Columbia
- The GPS device was installed on the 11th day, and in the state of Maryland
- Jones was tracked for four weeks and based on the information gathered, police charged Jones with distributing five kilograms or more of cocaine and 50 grams or more of cocaine base
- Jones filed an order to suppress evidence gathered by the GPS, and the District Court granted the motion, in part, because some information was gathered from a private garage
- The Court chose to decide the case based on 18th-century tort law
Decided Jan. 23, 2012
Antione Jones
"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated; and no Warrants shall issue but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."
The Case
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/jansing-and-co/46101290#46101290
Reasonable Expectation of Privacy
- Katz v. United States (1967)
- Government attached a eavesdropping device onto a public phone booth therefore violating a person's reasonable expectation of privacy
GPS device located under car. (Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired)
What GPS Devices can Reveal About You!
- Cell phones can track and record a persons location
- Smart phones with GPS devices permit better tracking of a person
- What this information reveals: family, political, professional, religious and even sexual associations
- Apps on your phone such as, Life360 Family Locator, are used as social tools to find and locate family and friends.
Case Outcome
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http://streamallthis.ch/watch/modern-family/s03e06.html
- Currently, Congress haven't enacted rules to regulate the use of GPS tracking technology
- With enabled GPS devices on our smart phones, the Government could (with a warrant) gather information about us with out "physical intrusion"
- Q: With current technology, where is the line drawn against searches and seizures?
- As technology progresses it will continue to alter our view of reasonable expectation to privacy
- The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia reversed convicting Jones to life in prison since the evidence was gathered by a warrentless use of a GPS
- But, the opinion of the court was that even though the police technically performed a "search," it was lawful under the Fourth Amendment because, "officers had reasonable suspision...and probable cause to believe that [Jones] was a leader of a large-scale cocaine distribution conspiricy"