A U.S. Supreme Court that has been systematically diluting the Fourth Amendment rights of criminal defendants dropped a bombshell last week with its unanimous ruling in United States v. Jones1 that police use of GPS devices on the vehicles of suspects is a search under the Constitution. Not only is the widely reported outcome of this case big news, but the analysis in the justices’ three opinions is full of surprise and intrigue. And the fact that this decision validates a groundbreaking 2009 ruling from the New York Court of Appeals is the icing on the cake.
Setting the Stage in New York
As GPS devices have become ubiquitous over the last two decades, the courts have been wrestling with various legal challenges to government use of the devices to monitor the movements and whereabouts of criminal suspects, government employees, and others. As of 2009, virtually every court to have addressed the issue had ruled that the use of GPS devices without a warrant on vehicles did not violate federal or state protections against unreasonable searches.
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