Judge rules GPS tracking rule isn't retroactive

The American Civil Liberties Union is criticizing an appeals court decision that says evidence obtained with a GPS tracking device prior to a major Supreme Court decision can be used in court.

The Supreme Court in January ruled that when police use a GPS tracking device, it will be considered a “search” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. But the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals said that decision doesn’t mean evidence police already have obtained with GPS devices must be thrown out. The court ruled that it wouldn’t exclude such evidence from being used at trial because settled law didn’t prohibit it at the time. The case, United States v. Pineda-Moreno, was already in the courts by the time the Supreme Court ruled. And the Ninth Circuit ruled that the decision doesn’t take effect retroactively. “When the agents attached and used the mobile tracking devices that yielded the critical evidence, they did so in objectively reasonable reliance on then-binding precedent,” wrote Judge Diarmuid O’Scannlain in the opinion.