This case constitutes a major victory for CLDEF! Jones involved the police attaching a GPS tracking device to Jones’ vehicle without a warrant. The police tracked Jones’ movements for nearly a month. Jones was convicted, but the Court of Appeals overturned the conviction. The government sought U.S. Supreme Court review. The government argued that Jones had no expectation of privacy of his movements on the road.
CLDEF, in its amicus curiae brief in support of Jones, argued that returning to the property-based principles of the Fourth Amendment leads to the inescapable conclusion that the government’s installation and use of the GPS tracking device on Jones’ vehicle violated his property interest. The Supreme Court adopted this view, holding that the government’s actions constitute a violation of the Fourth Amendment’s property-based protections.
CLDEF Amicus Curiae Brief in Support of Petition for Certiorari (May 16, 2011)
CLDEF Amicus Curiae Brief (October 3, 2011)