Supreme Court Puts the Kibosh on Warrantless GPS Tracking

The Supreme Court finally ruled on whether or not government agencies can use GPS tracking devices to track suspects without first getting a warrant. According to a unanimous ruling they can’t:

The Supreme Court on Monday unanimously restricted the police’s ability to use a GPS device to track criminal suspects in a first test of how privacy rights will be protected in the digital age.

The court rejected the government’s view that long-term surveillance of a suspect by GPS tracking is no different than traditional, low-tech forms of monitoring. But its decision was nuanced and incremental, leaving open the larger questions of how government may use the information generated by modern technology for surveillance purposes.

This ruling is one of those few speed bumps being encountered by the government as it speeds down the road to tyranny and I’m glad for it. Anybody with a couple of brain cells to rub together would be able to determine attaching a GPS tracking device to a suspect’s car without so much as a warrant is a complete violation of the Fourth Amendment.

The complete Supreme Court writeup can be found here [PDF].