GPS and the Right to Privacy

[Commentary] The Supreme Court ruled unanimously that the police violated the Constitution when they hid a Global Positioning System tracking device on the car of Antoine Jones and monitored his movements for 28 days. It put law enforcement on notice that most GPS electronic surveillance will be suspect without a judge’s warrant. As welcome as the ruling was, the court left too many questions unanswered. It did not say how long this kind of surveillance can go on before requiring a warrant or what types of crimes justify GPS monitoring. It did not say what the rule would be if the police had tracked the defendant with a technology not hidden on his car. The full court recognized the intrusion on the defendant’s right to privacy. A majority of the justices also recognized the wider threat to citizens’ privacy from this and other new technologies. Regrettably, their understanding is not reflected in the narrow holding.