More on GPS and cell phone tracking by the police

An Ohio-based federal court of appeals has just issued a new decision on the issue of if and when the police can use a "pay-as-you-go" cell phone to track the travels of a criminal suspect.   In the case of United States v. Skinner, the Court held that a defendant that uses this type of cell phone does not have any "expectation of privacy" in the GPS data being emitted by the phone.  The Court held that the DEA did not need to obtain a search warrant to track the cell phone GPS.   This case is bound to be relied upon by the police and prosecutors in the future, and we think that the United States Supreme Court will be eventually presented with this issue.   As we have blogged about in January of this year, the United States Supreme Court has recently held that the police need a search warrant to attach a pure GPS tracking device on a car - so this pay-as-you go cell phone/GPS issue will likely be a natural extension of that emerging GPS issue. Stay tuned - and remember you can still always track your kids' cell phones and cars without a warrant.  They have no rights when it comes to their parents.  LOL.