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Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Police Can’t Use GPS Monitoring Without A Warrant

A U.S. Supreme Court decision handed down yesterday in US v.Jones ruled against a joint FBI/D.C. police team that illegally monitored nightclub owner Antoine Jones’ jeep with a GPS device for 28 days.  The GPS tracking device led the joint team to discover Jones at a house with 100 kilograms of cocaine and $850,000.00 cash. Jones was convicted of conspiring to sell cocaine and sentenced to life in prison. The court ruled that GPS monitoring without a warrant constituted an unconstitutional search under the fourth amendment. Based on the illegal search, Jones’ conviction was overturned.


Image by J_Alves; used pursuant to Creative Commons license.