Supreme Court: warrant needed for Police GPS tracking of suspects 1/23/2012

[nbruno322]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/01/23/national/w072938S87.DTL

[Krugerrand]

some good news for the day.

[eduardo89]

I'm surprised this hasnt made more news. It's a really big issue

[Krugerrand]

I'm surprised this hasnt made more news. It's a really big issue

You must not have heard ... the Giants are going to play the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

[eduardo89]

You must not have heard ... the Giants are going to play the Patriots in the Super Bowl.

I did not know and I did not care.

[Anti Federalist]

Some good news for a change.

[Krugerrand]

I did not know and I did not care.

Perhaps you were caught up with these "more important" headlines:
Chris Paul set to buy Avril Lavigne’s $8.5 million mansion http://sports.yahoo.com/blogs/nba-ball-dont-lie/chris-paul-set-buy-avril-lavigne-8-5-140421998.html
Simon Cowell Breaks Off Engagement After Two Years http://tv.yahoo.com/news/simon-cowell-breaks-off-engagement-two-years-231409639.html
Angelina Jolie Sizzles in Black Lace Gown at Producers Guild Awards http://movies.yahoo.com/news/angelina-jolie-sizzles-black-lace-gown-producers-guild-171255245.html

[surf]

The court ruled in the case of Washington, D.C., nightclub owner Antoine Jones. A federal appeals court in Washington overturned his drug conspiracy conviction because police did not have a warrant when they installed a GPS device on his vehicle and then tracked his movements for a month.

The GPS device helped authorities link Jones to a suburban house used to stash money and drugs. He was sentenced to life in prison before the appeals court overturned the conviction. The Supreme Court agreed with the appeals court.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/01/23/national/w072938S87.DTL#ixzz1kIh6GIXi
life in prison? this is a win, and a win feels good now.

[wgadget]

Yay!

[Brett85]

Some good news from the Supreme Court for once.

[smithtg]

problem is with something like this as corrupt as the law enforcement is, they already have a judge in their back pocket so getting the warrant is a formality.

[Krugerrand]

problem is with something like this as corrupt as the law enforcement is, they already have a judge in their back pocket so getting the warrant is a formality.

And, as long as warrants can be issued based on 'anonymous' tips there's nothing stopping the police from making up whatever they want.

[Reason]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/supreme-court-warrants-needed-in-gps-tracking/2012/01/23/gIQAx7qGLQ_story.html

[fisharmor]

And, as long as warrants can be issued based on 'anonymous' tips there's nothing stopping the police from making up whatever they want.

I'm beginning to wonder why it is that the police departments haven't simply started executing suspects.
They already get away with it.
I'm not sure there's any kickback from the judicial department.... maybe they feed a portion of their victims through the system in the hope that either a) they were bad people who will get out and be bad again, or b) they were good people that the system has now turned into bad people.
In any case, I haven't quite figured out why they bother with the law at all anymore.

[Krugerrand]

I'm beginning to wonder why it is that the police departments haven't simply started executing suspects.
They already get away with it.
I'm not sure there's any kickback from the judicial department.... maybe they feed a portion of their victims through the system in the hope that either a) they were bad people who will get out and be bad again, or b) they were good people that the system has now turned into bad people.
In any case, I haven't quite figured out why they bother with the law at all anymore.

I'm wondering why you think they haven't.

[ConCap]

Total victory.

[cstarace]

Shocked that more people haven't commented on this yet. With Rand protesting the TSA's sexual abuses and this SCOTUS ruling, today was a great day for civil libertarians in America.

[Brian4Liberty]

Good news.

It was a narrow victory, with a surprising addition of Sotomayor to the majority opinion (although that was somewhat tempered by a solo opinion from Sotomayor that agreed a bit with both sides). It looks like she may end up being the deciding swing vote in a lot of future cases.

So we had the narrowest of support for the Fourth Amendment:

Scalia, Roberts, Kennedy, Thomas and Sotomayor (favor the 4th)
vs.
Alito, Ginsburg, Breyer and Kagan (oppose the 4th)



Scalia’s majority opinion, which was joined by Chief Justice John Roberts, and Justices Anthony Kennedy, Clarence Thomas and Sonia Sotomayor, said placing the device on the suspect’s car amounted to a search.

In a separate opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, and joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, wrote that Scalia’s opinion was “unwise”...

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/01/scotus-gps-ruling/

[Jtorsella]

Thank god. This court has been relatively great.

[Kluge]

I knew Kagan would be pure suck, glad to see Sotomayor come through.

(Not kluge)

[sailingaway]

and suggests, apparently, that they have feelings about other electronic devices as well, but I don't have the full opinion:


Warrant needed for GPS tracking, high court says

WASHINGTON (AP) - In a rare defeat for law enforcement, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed on Monday to bar police from installing GPS technology to track suspects without first getting a judge's approval. The justices made clear it wouldn't be their final word on increasingly advanced high-tech surveillance of Americans. Indicating they will be monitoring the growing use of such technology, five justices said they could see constitutional and privacy problems with police using many kinds of electronic surveillance for long-term tracking of citizens' movements without warrants.

http://www.kmph.com/story/16583228/ap-top-news-at-715-pm-est-monday-january-23-2012

[Brian4Liberty]

I knew Kagan would be pure suck, glad to see Sotomayor come through.

(Not kluge)

Yeah, we squeaked out a win (this time).

[ConCap]

Thank god. This court has been relatively great.

Nice signature.
From my post.
Does Howard Roark live here.
http://www.americanrhetoric.com/MovieSpeeches/moviespeechthefountainhead.html

[Brian4Liberty]

and suggests, apparently, that they have feelings about other electronic devices as well, but I don't have the full opinion:


WASHINGTON (AP) - In a rare defeat for law enforcement, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed on Monday to bar police from installing GPS technology to track suspects without first getting a judge's approval.

http://www.kmph.com/story/16583228/ap-top-news-at-715-pm-est-monday-january-23-2012

If I read the full story correctly, the Court only unanimously agreed that law enforcement had trespassed to install the device, thus they overturned the conviction. On a related 4th Amendment issue on warrants, it only passed by one vote.

[QueenB4Liberty]

Some good news for a change.

This is what I said!

[ZanZibar]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hMeyB6jdKz4&feature=uploademail

[Mani]

This was pretty common. I can't say how I know but I'm familiar with a local dept that was doing this with some of their known criminals or suspects...

Sneaking up to cars and sticking a GPS device underneath it. Yup it happens, and not just the FBI, your local dept may be doing...

I'm shocked to hear this is ruling. A win for liberty?? Wow.

[Tim Calhoun]

From what I understand in the ruling they were unanimous, but they wrote two different opinions because they disagreed on the reasoning for their ruling.