In the News: Warrantless Use of GPS

Today, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency’s warrantless placement of a GPS device on a vehicle was constitutional because probable cause existed to believe the car was being used for criminal purposes. A three judge panel for the Third Circuit had previously ruled that in such cases officers must obtain a warrant, but that decision was vacated pending an en banc decision. As noted in the New York Times, the split reflects differing interpretations of a 2012 U.S. Supreme Court decision, United States v. Jones. In Volume 19.1 of the Michigan Journal of Race & Law, authors George M. Dery III and Ryan Evaro take on this issue in their article “The Court Loses Its Way With the Global Positioning System: United States v. Jones Retreats to the ‘Classic Trespassory Search.'”

–Adam Wright, Executive Notes Editor, Volume 19