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Gps Tracking And The Fourth Amendment

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A police attached a GPS tracking device to Jones's Jeep (without judicial approval) and applied it to monitor the vehicle’s movements for 28 days. On Oct 24, 2005, Antoine Jones was arrested for drug possession. But a jury found Jones not guilty and declared a hung jury. District prosecutors refilled a single count of conspiracy against Jones and his business partner, Lawrence Maynard. Jones and Maynard were then convicted. The District of Columbia Circuit claim that the evidence was provided by GPS tracking device violated the Fourth Amendment. This raised a controversial question: Does the positioning of a GPS tracking device to track the vehicle’s movements on public streets constitute a search within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment? Justice Antonin Scalia delivered the judgment of the Court that the installation of a GPS tracking device on a Jones' vehicle without a warrant. The government had got information by usurping Jones' property and by invading his privacy that constituted an unlawful search under the Fourth Amendment. …show more content…

This case doesn't violate the Fourth Amendment. Basically, the installation was authorized in the District of Columbia and within 10 days, but agents installed it in Maryland and tracked the vehicle for 28 days. I think this is a signal for development in Fourth Amendment doctrine. It was penned in the Seventeenth Century and now is Twentieth Century. Three Centuries passed already, coming after the rise of technology, criminals increasingly more sophisticated. If we guarded old rules, we are creating the opportunity for them to use the slits of the backwardness to acquit. Laws may be ineffective if they don't reflect social norms. Especially, we need some exemption to deal with bad

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