WILL THE SUPREME COURT RECONSIDER UNITED STATES V. KNOTTS AND PROHIBIT WARRANTLESS GPS SEARCHES BY THE POLICE

The Department of Justice is urging the Supreme Court to take up the Fourth Amendment issue of Global Positioning Systems (GPS). Various courts have ruled on the constitutionality of the use of GPS without getting a warrant and rulings have come down on both sides of the issue,

The Ninth and the Seventh Circuits have ruled it constitutional while the D. C. Circuit found it unconstitutional. Courts in New York, Massachusetts, Washington and Delaware have found it unconstitutional while courts in Ohio and Virginia have approved of the practice.

The Justice Department is challenging a D. C. Circuit opinion that overturned the conviction of Antoine Jones on cocaine trafficking charges after GPS evidence played a mayor role in his conviction. The DOJ argues that since law enforcement officers could have followed Jones as he traveled on the public roads he could not have had a legitimate expectation of privacy. The Fourth Amendment only applies to individuals who have an expectation of privacy that is recognized by society.

However his attorneys argue that using a GPS device on Jones’ Jeep Cherokee for over a month and reporting his whereabouts every seven seconds was a tremendous invasion of his privacy and is prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.

The Courts that have upheld warrantless GPS searches have cited the 1983 Supreme Court decision, United States v. Knotts in which the Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a man in a methamphetamine case after the wholesaler of necessary chemicals placed a beeper in a barrel of chemicals. The barrel was placed in a codefendant’s vehicle and followed by agents to the suspect’s residence.

Knotts has been cited by the courts in upholding warrantless GPS decisions. Most of the Courts have said that if it was constitutional to follow a car with a beeper, it is constitutional to keep track of a vehicle with a GPS deviced placed under the car’s carriage while it is either parked on the street or in the defendant’s driveway.

But while the lower courts do not have the power to reconsider Knotts the Supreme Court does. It is a decision that may have had some validity 30 years ago but with the technological advances in the last 30 years allowing greater and greater invasions into citizen’s privacy it is time for the Supreme Court to reconsider the decision.