Two recent decisions by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit appear to reflect the court’s growing interest in the constitutionality of the government’s use of location information obtained electronically from global positioning systems (GPS). In both U.S. v. Caraballo, 831 F.3d 95 (2d Cir. 2016) and U.S. v. Gilliam, No. 15-387, 2016 WL 70009952 (2d Cir. Dec. 1, 2016), the Second Circuit considered whether a defendant-appellant’s Fourth Amendment right is violated when law enforcement determines his location by acquiring GPS information from a cellular phone provider, and then uses this information to carry out an arrest.
In each case, although the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s approval of the government’s conduct, it did so based on exigent circumstances. As a result, the court has left open the looming question of at what point information obtained via GPS violates an individual’s Fourth Amendment right, and is therefore unconstitutional.
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