CALIFORNIA ARAB-AMERICAN STUDENTS FINDS GPS DEVICE ATTACHED TO VEHICLE

An automobile mechanic discovered a GPS device attached to Yasir Afifi’s vehicle when Afifi took the car in for an oil change. Why the FBI attached the device to Afifi’s car we do not know. Afifi lives in California where the Ninth Circuit has ruled that a search warrant is not necessary to place a GPS device on a vehicle. If he lived in the District of Columbia the result would be different because the DC Circuit has ruled that a warrant is necessary ¹ and the FBI would have had to file an affidavit showing probable cause with the court in order to obtain a warrant to place a GPS device under the vehicle.

What we do know is that Afifi is an Arab-American, that his father was active in community affairs and that Afifi maintains contact with friends and family in Egypt. None of these are good reasons and they would not support a search warrant. But as long as the Ninth Circuit finding that GPS attached to a vehicle on public roads does not violate an individual’s reasonable expectations of privacy remains in effect, Afifi’s has limited legal recourse.

This is just one more reason that we need the Supreme Court to review the issue.The Supreme Court in United States v. Knotts ruled that it did not violate the Fourth Amendment to place a beeper in a barrel of chloroform on the back of a truck as a means to aid agents keep track of a vehicle during a short trip. The Ninth Circuit and the Virginia courts have ruled that this justifies the use of GPS to keep track the the whereabouts of a vehicle on a public road. But the technology has changed considerably since the 1983 Knotts decision and as I have suggested before now it is time for the Supreme Court to review the situation, particularly in light of the mixed decisions of lower courts and state courts.