GPS Tracking: No Need for Warrant

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Some general news regarding GPS tracking devices is making headlines today. Government agents can slap a GPS tracking device on your car parked in your driveway, and track you, legally.

This is now the case in California and 8 other Western states, a U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has ruled. The government requires no search warrant to enter your driveway and then track your car, because you have no reasonable expectation of privacy in your driveway, said the Court.

Time magazine today called the ruling bizarre and scary and wondered if the U.S. will become a totalitarian state.

This case began in 2007, when Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) agents wanted to monitor an Oregon man suspected of growing marijuana. They snuck onto his property at night and and put a tracking device under his Jeep.

The Oregon man, Juan Pineda-Moreno challenged the DEA’s actions but the court in January ruled it legal and a second group of judges this month, ruled to let the decision stand.

To make matters worse, the court also ruled that once a GPS device has been planted, the government can track people without a warrant. Now there is a battle underway in federal and state courts regarding this issue and the issue is likely to wind up in the Supreme Court.

Source: Time magazine

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3 Comments

  1. So for instance if a police department parks their vehicles in an open public parking lot anyone can place a tracking unit on their cars legally? So what would keep a drug dealer from putting tracking units on police cars on knowing their location at all times?

    Stupid laws can work either for or against them!

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