{"id":900,"date":"2011-11-28T19:51:15","date_gmt":"2011-11-29T01:51:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=900"},"modified":"2011-11-28T19:51:15","modified_gmt":"2011-11-29T01:51:15","slug":"chewing-away-on-the-fourth-amendment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/?p=900","title":{"rendered":"Chewing Away on the Fourth Amendment"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Did it ever occur to you that as you drive down the street you may very well be in a private place within the confines of your vehicle[1]<\/a>, but your vehicle is not a private place?\u00a0 What?\u00a0\u00a0 Of course not, why would anyone ever think of something like that?\u00a0 Well, perhaps it\u2019s time to think about it, Winston[2]<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A couple of weeks ago, the United States Supreme Court<\/a> heard oral arguments in United States v. Jones<\/a>.\u00a0 Antoine Jones and Lawrence Maynard were business partners.\u00a0 In 2004, both were suspected of being involved in drug trafficking, so the FBI attached a Global Positioning System (GPS) to the Jeep that Jones drove \u2013 his wife\u2019s.\u00a0 A federal judge had issued a warrant to attach the GPS to Jones\u2019 vehicle, but the judge limited the warrant to the District of Columbia and for a specific ten-day period.\u00a0 FBI agents didn\u2019t get around to installing the GPS device until the 11th<\/sup> day, and then they attached it to the Jeep while it was parked in a public parking lot in Maryland.<\/p>\n

This case involves the question of 1) whether the warrantless use of a tracking device (GPS) on a vehicle to monitor its movements on public streets violates the Fourth Amendment[3]<\/a>, and 2) whether the government violated Jones\u2019 Fourth Amendment rights by attaching the GPS tracking device to his vehicle without seeking a valid warrant and without his consent.<\/p>\n

Not long ago, I blogged <\/a>\u00a0about another Fourth Amendment case before the Court, Florence v. Board of Chosen Freeholders<\/em><\/a>. At that time, I had warned that the case \u201cis not a slam dunk\u201d.\u00a0 Neither is Jones\u2019 case.\u00a0 It\u2019s hard to believe that a law enforcement agency would be constitutionally safe to attach GPS devices to our vehicles, and this case may very well be the Court\u2019s \u201cthe buck stops here.\u201d<\/p>\n

A 1983 Supreme Court decision held that a beeper attached to a car on a public street did not constitute a search because a \u201cperson traveling in an automobile on public thoroughfares [does not have a] reasonable expectation of privacy in his movements from one place to another.\u201d\u00a0 In that case, the police attached a beeper device to a vehicle in order to follow the defendant to his drug lab.\u00a0 However, in the recent oral arguments, Chief Justice Roberts asked the government:\u00a0 \u201cYou think there would also not be a search if you put a GPS device on all of our cars, monitored our movements for a month? You think you’re entitled to do that under your theory?\u201d<\/p>\n

The Big Court may be getting it.\u00a0 What would prevent the FBI from following Supreme Court Justices?\u00a0 That might be what Chief Justice Roberts had in mind when he questioned the government attorney.<\/p>\n

Our Fourth Amendment has been eroding over the past two centuries as more and more exceptions are added to the warrant requirement by the Supreme Court.\u00a0 Some of the exceptions include \u201cconsent\u201d, \u201cplain view\u201d, \u201cexigent circumstances\u201d, \u201csearch incident to arrest\u201d, and several more.\u00a0 At some point the Court has to realize that the scales of justice are beginning to look off-center in favor of the government.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure James Madison could never envision a GPS, much less an automobile, but he surely would have shaken his finger at the idea of his government making an exception under these circumstances.<\/p>\n

By the way, any evidence obtained from the GPS while the Jeep Cherokee was parked in Jones\u2019 garage, adjoining his residence, was suppressed.<\/p>\n

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[1]<\/a> [1] State v. Lake, 476 N.W.2d 55 (Iowa 1991). http:\/\/scholar.google.com\/scholar_case?case=16026845495549248629&q=%22State+v.+Lake%22&hl=en&as_sdt=4,16&as_vis=1<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[2]<\/a> Winston Smith worked for the Ministry of Truth in George Orwell\u2019s 1949 novel \u201c1984\u201d.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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[3]<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I\u2019m sure James Madison could never envision a GPS, much less an automobile, but he surely would have shaken his finger at the idea of his government making an exception under these circumstances. Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[42,17],"tags":[342,340,234,339,341,343,230,338],"class_list":["post-900","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criminal-justice","category-issues","tag-chief-justice-roberts","tag-fbi","tag-fourth-amendment","tag-global-positioning-system","tag-gps-tracking-device","tag-james-madison","tag-united-states-supreme-court","tag-united-states-v-jones"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=900"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":902,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/900\/revisions\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=900"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=900"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iowappa.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=900"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}