Warrantless GPS Tracking Is Unconstitutional

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And the "no duh" ruling of the day from the Supreme Court? Warrantless GPS tracking is illegal. And the countdown to overturned convictions and lawsuits begins in 3...2...1.

The decision (.pdf) in what is arguably the biggest Fourth Amendment case in the computer age, rejected the Obama administration’s position. The government had told the high court that it could affix GPS devices on the vehicles of all members of the Supreme Court, without a warrant.
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Wow Alito and 3 others wanted to go further.

Justice Samuel Alito also wrote a concurring opinion in which he said the court should have gone further and dealt with GPS tracking of wireless devices, like mobile phones. He was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan.
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Huge win for liberty. It's good to see a unanimous opinion on the holding of the case.
 
I guess the pals he pre-loaded to the Supreme Court aren't giving him his way :)

Let's just hope they protect the 2nd as well.
 
So does this mean that the Patriot Act is no longer legal? Because I'm pretty sure they can still do whatever they want under it, including GPS tracking.
 
Good to see a move in the right direction. There's still a lot of work to do in recovering a lot of lost liberty.
 
Even with this judgement, most people give that right away when installing any number of apps.

Not too many apps don't request your "Fine GPS Location" on top of you cell phone "Identity and Serial Number", what stops nybodyfrom going through a software vendor?

Or add a disclaimer in your cell phone policy?

Meh... whatever, use a cell phone, lose privacy...
 
VRMan said:
So does this mean that the Patriot Act is no longer legal? Because I'm pretty sure they can still do whatever they want under it, including GPS tracking.
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You've never ready the patriot act, so therefore you wouldn't have known that a warrant is still required. Even before the patriot act was enacted there were circumstances by which a warrant wasn't necessary to be obtain. Probable cause alone if proven valid in court is enough to enact a search and a seizure.
 
Methadras said:
Even before the patriot act was enacted there were circumstances by which a warrant wasn't necessary to be obtain.
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sure, but the patriot act made it substantially easier to do this, and broadly widended the set of circumstances in which this can be considered 'legal'. it considerably reuced the safeguards against the surveilance of innocent civilians. almost all arguments used in support of the act are falacies in one form or another. the only factual or logical supporting arguments fly in the face of the constitution.

whats that phrase- someone who is willing to give up a little liberty for a little security deserves neither...?
 
Justice Samuel Alito [snip]...
He questioned how it would apply in cases in which the government tied its surveillance to factory-installed GPS devices in vehicles or to smart phones equipped with GPS.
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You might want to cut those on-star wires.;)
I already had reservations about these things, and had decided to never allow one in my car.
 
I was surprised it was unanimous actually.

Then again, when you tell the supremes stuff like "yeah we could do this to YOUR cars all of you without a warrant whenever we felt like it and track your every move" that kinda makes them think.
 
with the National Defense Authorization Act and Patriot act ...what the h does this matter. They don't need anything but hunch to indefinitely detain you. All this SOPA and PIPA bs people will fight for... but our Bill Of Rights, no?
 
cacadodo666 said:
with the National Defense Authorization Act and Patriot act ...what the h does this matter. They don't need anything but hunch to indefinitely detain you. All this SOPA and PIPA bs people will fight for... but our Bill Of Rights, no?
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It matters because it's all connected. Here's how:

NDAA: Ability to detain indefinitely without due process based on accusation alone.
Warrentless GPS tracking: Ability to find you anywhere, any time.
SOPA/PIPA: Ability to take down web sites without due process based on accusation alone.

With this swiss army knife of tyranny, any organized social protest or other form of political speech can be disrupted by identifying, locating, and apprehending leaders and coordinators. Said people then disappear forever without ever having being charged with a crime. Any websites or services involved with, directly or indirectly, the activities of such perceived threat entities can be disabled indefinitely under the convenience of a "reported" copyright infringement, whether one exists or not. No court order or due process required for any of this. This means anything from Tea Party rallies to Occupy rallies to any other form of public speech can be neutralized without any constitutional recourse. All voices of dissent can effectively be silenced.

They're all different heads on the same monster.

That's why it's important, and why all of this must be reversed immediately and irrespective of who is in political office.
 
VRMan said:
So does this mean that the Patriot Act is no longer legal? Because I'm pretty sure they can still do whatever they want under it, including GPS tracking.
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Phoenix333 said:
It matters because it's all connected. Here's how:

NDAA: Ability to detain indefinitely without due process based on accusation alone.
Warrentless GPS tracking: Ability to find you anywhere, any time.
SOPA/PIPA: Ability to take down web sites without due process based on accusation alone.

With this swiss army knife of tyranny, any organized social protest or other form of political speech can be disrupted by identifying, locating, and apprehending leaders and coordinators. Said people then disappear forever without ever having being charged with a crime. Any websites or services involved with, directly or indirectly, the activities of such perceived threat entities can be disabled indefinitely under the convenience of a "reported" copyright infringement, whether one exists or not. No court order or due process required for any of this. This means anything from Tea Party rallies to Occupy rallies to any other form of public speech can be neutralized without any constitutional recourse. All voices of dissent can effectively be silenced.

They're all different heads on the same monster.

That's why it's important, and why all of this must be reversed immediately and irrespective of who is in political office.
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what he said
 
Phoenix333 said:
It matters because it's all connected. Here's how:

NDAA: Ability to detain indefinitely without due process based on accusation alone.
Warrentless GPS tracking: Ability to find you anywhere, any time.
SOPA/PIPA: Ability to take down web sites without due process based on accusation alone.

With this swiss army knife of tyranny, any organized social protest or other form of political speech can be disrupted by identifying, locating, and apprehending leaders and coordinators. Said people then disappear forever without ever having being charged with a crime. Any websites or services involved with, directly or indirectly, the activities of such perceived threat entities can be disabled indefinitely under the convenience of a "reported" copyright infringement, whether one exists or not. No court order or due process required for any of this. This means anything from Tea Party rallies to Occupy rallies to any other form of public speech can be neutralized without any constitutional recourse. All voices of dissent can effectively be silenced.

They're all different heads on the same monster.

That's why it's important, and why all of this must be reversed immediately and irrespective of who is in political office.
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This is the part where the Second Amendment comes into play.
 
Yakk said:
Even with this judgement, most people give that right away when installing any number of apps.

Not too many apps don't request your "Fine GPS Location" on top of you cell phone "Identity and Serial Number", what stops nybodyfrom going through a software vendor?

Or add a disclaimer in your cell phone policy?

Meh... whatever, use a cell phone, lose privacy...
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You can disable geolocation in those devices.
 
Monkey34 said:
You might want to cut those on-star wires.;)
I already had reservations about these things, and had decided to never allow one in my car.
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I don't have On-Star but my car still has GPS in the event it gets stolen. Most/all new vehicles do.
 
Yobbles said:
You can disable geolocation in those devices.
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Yes, of course you can... saves battery & all...

But a lot of people I know like things like GPS tagging vacation pictures... Or any number of useful apps which require legitimate GPS use.

It's an easy code to associate a cell phone's id# and their GPS signal or approx IP location on wifi.
 
Yobbles said:
I don't have On-Star but my car still has GPS in the event it gets stolen. Most/all new vehicles do.
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It's ok....I'm not vain. A car is plain-old transportation to me. I'll keep driving mine until it falls apart, and then buy another older vehicle.

I swear, the more @#$% that goes on, the more I feel like becoming Gene Hackman in Enemy of the State.:rolleyes:
 
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