Orin Kerr’s commentary on GPS surveillance and the Fourth Amendment has seemingly inspired John Wesley Hall, Jr. of FourthAmendment.com to offer his own commentary:
My personal view is not far off, but with a caveat: United States v. Knotts, 460 U.S. 276 (1983), and United States v. Karo, 468 U.S. 705 (1984), two beeper tracking cases, are hard to overcome. The only real difference is that the beeper cases had to be surveilled up close. GPS doesn’t require the observer to leave the office. But that is the Fourth Amendment. Somehow, the upheaval in technology since Knotts and Karo (see, e.g., Kyllo, the thermal imaging case) has to be accounted for under the “reasonable expectation of privacy.”
The New York Court of Appeals decision in People v. Weaver, 12 N.Y.3d 433, 882 N.Y.S.2d 357, 909 N.E.2d 1195 (May 12, 2009), posted here, is hard to disagree with, too. And it distinguishes Knotts and Karo under the state constitution…
Read more on FourthAmendment.com.