In November, the Supreme Court will hear arguments in United States v. Jones, No. 10-1259, characterized by Adam Liptak in a New York Times* article as the most important Fourth Amendment case in a decade. In fact, judges have been asking is George Orwell’s 1984 here! Do changes in technology that can track our every move require changes to existing Fourth Amendment privacy doctrine? At issue, which the lower courts are divided on, is whether police need a warrant to attach a Global Positioning System (GPS) device to a suspect’s car.
*Initially published on Saturday, September 10, but republished on front page of the Sunday, September 11th NYT.