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Here’s another nail in the coffin of the Fourth Amendment:
Law enforcement officers may secretly place a GPS device on a person’s car without seeking a warrant from a judge, according to a recent federal appeals court ruling in California.
Drug Enforcement Administration agents in Oregon in 2007 surreptitiously attached a GPS to the silver Jeep owned by Juan Pineda-Moreno, whom they suspected of growing marijuana, according to court papers.
When Pineda-Moreno was arrested and charged, one piece of evidence was the GPS data, including the longitude and latitude of where the Jeep was driven, and how long it stayed.
This ruling only affects the nine western states in the California Circuit, but it will likely reach the Supreme Court through the appeals process.
What’s on your mind tonight?
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“”You left place A, at this time, you went to place B, you took this street — that information can be gleaned in a variety of ways,” said David Rivkin, a former Justice Department attorney. “It can be old surveillance, by tailing you unbeknownst to you; it could be a GPS.”
He says that a person cannot automatically expect privacy just because something is on private property.”
But another example of what I’ve been saying; no wonder he is a ‘former’ employee given his misunderstanding of the Constitution.
Hey tea partiers, where’s your voice on this? Or is the taxation issue all your consciousness can handle?
Jim, fwiw; there is a movement and thought that instead of home ownership as a government ‘subsidy’, such monies get spent for development of rental housing. DDayen had a news item on it; whatever one might believe, the fact that english common law and therefore our laws are based on the idea of private property being sacrosanct is being eroded for all but the wealthy.
Such is the decline of empire.
This will set straight the notion there are no fools in California.
Such zeal on the part of law enforcement. You’d think they were going after the fraud that almost took down the country…
Your rights are what the government says they are, nothing more and sure as heck a lot less! Besides, no one is going to seriously object anyway lest they be shot and killed by said lawbreaking officers………….
I guess it is also legal now to imbed a chip in our lawmaker’s butt. That way the voters can keep abreast of their representation!
I’m assuming this kind of tracking device will not be limited to automobiles in the future. Why not insert something in the person’s clothing, cellphone, or, even, person? Why, since the authorities could aim one of those long range microphones at a person, why not incorporate an audio pick up in the tracking device?
Happy days. Heh.