The Supreme Court today in a 5-4 ruling put limits on the use of GPS technology to track suspects for extended periods of time without a warrant. In this case, the police tracked the suspect's location for 127 days, during which time he was in the vicinity of several robberies for which he was later convicted. The Court said that went too far, and that precedents from pre-cellphone technology cases about people supposedly giving their consent to such searches did not apply here. The Chief Justice wrote the opinion, joined by the four liberal justices. The Court did not say that police couldn't use other methods of tracking like surveillance cameras, or that they couldn't make exceptions in cases of emergencies.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/ ... 723239002/
Supreme Court Limits Police Cell Phone Tracking
- silverscreenselect
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Supreme Court Limits Police Cell Phone Tracking
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- BackInTex
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Re: Supreme Court Limits Police Cell Phone Tracking
I'm not a lawyer, and I'm anything but sympathetic to criminals, but I think this is a good ruling.
..what country can preserve it’s liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? let them take arms.
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War is where the government tells you who the bad guy is.
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~~ Thomas Jefferson
War is where the government tells you who the bad guy is.
Revolution is when you decide that for yourself.
-- Benjamin Franklin (maybe)
- Bob78164
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Re: Supreme Court Limits Police Cell Phone Tracking
The Gorsuch dissent is interesting. It's been too long since I studied this subject in law school and I haven't kept up with the last 25 years of developments in the field, but he may be on to something. He's certainly inviting litigants to make an additional argument in similar cases. --Bob
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- Appa23
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Re: Supreme Court Limits Police Cell Phone Trackin
About a year ago, I attended a symposium where this topic was discussed — what are the rules for searches and seizures in our digital world. There was the discussion that police needed warrants to put trackers on cars in the old days.
Key fact here is that one cannot make the choice to shield the info without extraordinary effort. Not enough to turn off your phone, but you also have to use faraday bag or pull SIM card.
Key fact here is that one cannot make the choice to shield the info without extraordinary effort. Not enough to turn off your phone, but you also have to use faraday bag or pull SIM card.
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Re: Supreme Court Limits Police Cell Phone Tracking
Isn't this as simple as making sure you get a warrant in non-emergency cases? Of course it isn't actually as simple as that, but it should be.
- silverscreenselect
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Re: Supreme Court Limits Police Cell Phone Tracking
The problem with getting a warrant is that you have to show probable cause that this person is involved in criminal activity. You can't just go around rousting "bad actors" on the theory that they may have done something.IronmanTim wrote:Isn't this as simple as making sure you get a warrant in non-emergency cases? Of course it isn't actually as simple as that, but it should be.
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