Supreme Court to Decide GPS Surveillance Case

 

It's time to highlight some of the criminal law cases the U.S. Supreme Court will decide next year. One of the most important is United States v. Maynard, in which the Court will determine the limits of police surveillance using GPS devices.

United States v. Maynard concerns Lawrence Maynard, who in 2004 came under investigation by the FBI-Metropolitan P.D. Safe Streets Task Force in Washington, D.C., for suspicion of drug trafficking. As part of the investigation, police put a GPS device on Maynard's vehicle and monitored his movements continually for a month. Lawyer office in US. After his arrest and eventual conviction for conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute a large quantity of cocaine, Maynard appealed to the District of Columbia Circuit Court.

The D.C. Court in its decision in 2010 ruled against the government, stating that prolonged surveillance by law enforcement using a GPS device constitutes a unreasonable warrantless search in violation of the Fourth Amendment. While the court said it is at times reasonable to use a GPS device to track a single journey from one location to another, GPS monitoring 24 hours a day for many days violates a person's reasonable expectation of privacy. In a review of existing law, the appellate court noted that California law already requires police to obtain a warrant before using a GPS device.

We hope that the Supreme Court agrees with the D.C. Circuit Court's ruling and limits the government's ability to use GPS monitoring. These technological advances that bring so much convenience to our lives can also allow government to intrude inappropriately on our privacy. The government's law enforcement duty must always be balanced with the need to preserve our civil liberties.