GPS Tracking Needs Search Warrant

On an issue that we have been "tracking" for a number of months (see our previous posts on this blog), the Supreme Court of the United States today held that police officers need a warrant before they can attach a GPS tracking device to a drug dealer's car.   The GPS device was attached for 4 weeks.   This is a case where new technology required a new decision by the highest court in the land.   In United States v. Jones, the US Supreme Court, in a rare unanimous opinion, held that before a police department attaches a GPS device to a criminal defendant's car, the police must get a search warrant.  The Court had no choice but to overturn a drug dealer's drug trafficking conviction based upon the failure of a police department to get that warrant.