Last month, the U.S. Supreme Court in United States v. Jones[FOOTNOTE 1] held that the use of a global positioning system by law enforcement to track a suspect’s vehicular travel constitutes a “search” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. Therefore, law enforcement’s use of a GPS device in a criminal investigation without a valid warrant is unconstitutional. This outcome is consistent with a decision reached several years earlier by the New York Court of Appeals in People v. Weaver,[FOOTNOTE 2] in which the court held that the warrantless use of a GPS by law enforcement violated the New York State Constitution.

Between Jones and Weaver, the constitutionality of using GPS devices in a criminal investigation is now firmly settled. Yet questions stubbornly persist. Do the holdings of these cases make it unconstitutional for the government to use GPS technology to track an individual’s movements outside of a criminal investigation? A recent appellate division case, Cunningham v. Department of Labor,[FOOTNOTE 3] suggests that the warrantless use of a GPS may be constitutional in an administrative rather than criminal investigation. That case, now pending before the Court of Appeals, will present the court with an opportunity to rule on the constitutionality of state GPS tracking outside of criminal matters.

This content has been archived. It is available through our partners, LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law.

To view this content, please continue to their sites.

Not a Lexis Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Not a Bloomberg Law Subscriber?
Subscribe Now

Why am I seeing this?

LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law are third party online distributors of the broad collection of current and archived versions of ALM's legal news publications. LexisNexis® and Bloomberg Law customers are able to access and use ALM's content, including content from the National Law Journal, The American Lawyer, Legaltech News, The New York Law Journal, and Corporate Counsel, as well as other sources of legal information.

For questions call 1-877-256-2472 or contact us at [email protected]