United States v. Jones
Holding
Attaching a GPS device to a vehicle and then using the device to monitor the vehicle"s movements constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment.
Plain English Holding
The defendant"s conviction for drug trafficking must be reversed when some of the evidence to convict him was obtained through a GPS tracking device on his car, because the attachment of the GPS tracking device and then the use of that device to monitor the car"s whereabouts is a "search" for purposes of the Fourth Amendment.
Judgment
Affirmed, 9-0, in an opinion by Antonin Scalia on Jan 23, 2012. Justice Sotomayor filed a concurring opinion. Justice Alito also filed a concurring opinion, which was joined by Justices Ginsburg, Breyer, and Kagan. The five concurring members of the Court do not resolve the question of whether the search was reasonable in this case.
Merits Briefs for the Petitioner
Amicus briefs in support of the Petitioner
Merits Briefs for the Respondent
“Amicus Briefs in Support of the Respondent
- Brief for the Council on American-Islamic Relations
- Brief for the ACLU et al.”
- Brief for Gun Owners of America, Inc.
- Brief for EPIC et al.
- Brief for Fourth Amendment Historians
- Brief for NACDL el al.
- Brief for Owner-Operator Independent Drivers Association, Inc.
- “Brief for the Constitution Project
- Brief for the Center for Democracy and Technology et al.
- Brief for Yale Law School Information Society Project Scholars et al.”
- Brief for the Cato Institute
- Brief for the Rutherford Institute and National Motorists Association
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Recommended Citation: United States v. Jones, SCOTUSblog, https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/united-states-v-jones/