Government agents can sneak onto your property in the middle of the night, put a GPS device on the bottom of your car and keep track of everywhere you go. This doesn’t violate your Fourth Amendment rights, because you do not have any reasonable expectation of privacy in your own driveway — and no reasonable expectation that the government isn’t tracking your movements.
That is the bizarre — and scary — rule that now applies in California and eight other Western states. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, which covers this vast jurisdiction, recently decided the government can monitor you in this way virtually anytime it wants — with no need for a search warrant.
It is a dangerous decision — one that, as the dissenting judges warned, could turn America into the sort of totalitarian state imagined by George Orwell. It is particularly offensive because the judges added insult to injury with some shocking class bias: the little personal privacy that still exists, the court suggested, should belong mainly to the rich.
Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, who dissented from this month’s decision refusing to reconsider the case, pointed out whose homes are not open to strangers: rich people’s. The court’s ruling, he said, means that people who protect their homes with electric gates, fences and security booths have a large protected zone of privacy around their homes. People who cannot afford such barriers have to put up with the government sneaking around at night.
Here’s a cheap way to block the GPS tracking, at least until they figure out a way around it.
It’s all about BIG Government run by ‘Progressives” no matter what party. We need to get back to Smaller Government ‘by the people, for the people’ Remember those signs that used to be on police cars “serve and protect”. The bigger the gov. the more stupid things they come up with to grow even bigger, for instance the Dept of Energy’s latest study concerning the amount of people touched by the Stimulus thing. Now if they have that much time on their hands to do such a stupid study that is not in their charter in the first place, they could get rid of about 20% of their employees and no one would even know they were gone.
#11 bobbo said, “Also worrisome that if you find unpermitted property on your car you can’t simply detach it and leave it where you find it.”
I never saw any evidence that it was illegal. I just guessing about the interfering with a police investigation. Hence, why I recommended driving to the railroad tracks to “lose” the device. One could argue that it “accidentally” fell off.
This is amazing! The famed uber liberal 9th Circuit actually had DISSENTING opinions?
#18, how correct you are. There are so many way the government can track us. This is really not a big deal. And if I’m not doing anything illegal, why the hell would I care if big brother knows I’m at Wendy’s.
Progressives want tyranny…that’s why the liberal 9th circus doesn’t allow us to id voters or immigrants…but wants citizens spied on.
They want tyranny, with themselves as rulers, because they know what’s good for us…
People forget, Nazi is National Socialism in German, a progressive is proto-Nazi in attitude, they force their agenda down your throat because they know what’s good for you…we are too stupid to know what is the right thing to do.
So they want to keep an eye on us….
From Jack Kenny writing in “The New American”
“When you are driving down a public highway, the police may not track your progress with an electronic device without a warrant, a U.S Appeals Court has ruled. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the the District of Columbia said the use of Global Positioning System evidence to convict two defendants of drug dealing violated the Fourth Amendment right of persons to be secure in their “persons, houses, papers and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures.”"
When two circuits disagree, the Supremes get to decide. In probably 5-10 years.
#22–Benji==it bothers me the number of times your “solution” to a problem is to lie about it. Shows no character at all. The trick in life is to get what you want by following all the rules.
I had a friend once who’s father cheated at Hearts. When it was finally discovered, he just laughed and said it was part of the game.
The game I play is to be honest with myself so hopefully I can be honest with everyone else. Once I know the rules your opponent is playing with, you can decide to stay in the game or not, but try to have fun with either choice.
Some years ago, cops were actually towing cars out of driveways if they didn’t meet emissions guidelines. How is this less acceptable than that?
The cops can also track you through RF transponders in your car in states with toll systems. They can monitor through street cameras as well as follow you around.
From the Sopranos, they can also plant a listening device in your house but they’re in trouble if the daughter takes it off to college.
“You will be tagged, traced, labeled, categorized, and dealt with appropriately like good little slaves. It’s all for your security. It’s for your own good.”,
Says the System.
The System is broken.
Can I make a GRAND comment here?
AS with any corp, they wish to make it Easy on themselves to do certain things..
The BIGGEST among them all..DNA/Finger print and BAG/TAG. Then add GPS.
Its the same with CORPS..Any shortcut, Any Addon, ANY TRICK to make money. I dont care if I send Product to China, its sent back, Importers pay for it, then resellers SELL it to US.. WHY all the way around? Isnt it cheaper to make it here? PROBABLY, but it DONT MAKE MONEY.
If they could monitor EVERYONE, and FIND you at ANY MOMENT…that is ALL they need.
They keep saying it to EXPENSIVE the way it is…WHY? Think about the laws..WHO goes to jail? Over 40% are in jail for minor Crimes on Drugs.
In a World going to the DOGS, the Jackals are ruling the roost.
money, money, money. Its a penny game, and ITS YOUR PENNIES. They CHARGE US TO DO IT. MOSt of you are DOING IT YOURSELVES ALREADY…your cellphone has GPS.
NOW..
A simple question. Is it against the law if most every one does it?
In OUR nation, it is…Vote to change the laws, get 1,000,000 signatures and Change it. vote THE IDIOTS OUT of office and your friends into office.
Why not just build a GPS into every license plate?
#31 Or surgically implant them on us, then they can monitor our carbon footprint too. Once energy use is restored to 18th century levels, you can be watched to see what you do with the poop, if its properly recycled.
What paradise Progressivism promises for the future…just think of the ways they can determine what is good for you.
I think common sense would tell you no one has a right to bug your car like that. And if I see someone tampering with my car at night I’m prone to acting first and asking questions later. I’m sure I’m not the only one.
>> birddog said, on August 27th, 2010 at 5:58 am
>> Some states have laws that consider your vehicle an extension of your home, that is the case where I live. I wonder if that will be taken into consideration.
Yes — the inside.
But the police don’t need a warrant to discover the location of your home.
I understand the logic of this ruling — police have never needed a warrant to track the public movements of people. Nor have they needed warrants for the tools do to this – binoculars, cameras, helicopters, etc. I get all this.
But I think placing the tool a person’s private property is a meaningful distinction from those previous tools.
I seriously doubt this conservative Supreme Court will rule in favor of individual freedoms.
The liberal judges might have protected our privacy rights — but conservative voters have made damn sure we don’t have enough of those in the system.
>> Personality said, on August 27th, 2010 at 4:44
>> What if they come onto my driveway and the security light goes off and I see it from my bedroom. I jump up grab my nightstand 9mm and run our there.
You kind of deserve to be shot if you are stupid enough to run outside with your loaded gun just because someone set off your security light.
Even if you don’t deserve it, your neighbors will be safer for it.
F* them. I don’t have a car.
The EFF has this to say:
August 6th, 2010
Court Rejects Warrantless GPS Tracking
EFF-ACLU Arguments Against Always-On Surveillance Win The Day.
So I think some clarification is needed. From what I understand, the use of GPS trackers is still like those “beepers/ radio trackers” that the police are/were using anyways. Although I think that any tracking is wrong, I think that this is a bit of FUD. Unless the EFF got it wrong.
“#18, how correct you are. There are so many way the government can track us. This is really not a big deal. And if I’m not doing anything illegal, why the hell would I care if big brother knows I’m at Wendy’s.”
Guess you never heard of “The Patriotic Fast Food Condiments Act of 2002″? eh, gquaglia? Too bad for you. 10-20 years in the can should teach you to be more careful with the mayonnaise next time.
FYI: They don’t just stuck them underneath. No reception. In today’s plastic cars, a chunk of foam is removed from the inside of the bumper and it’s installed there. I know this first hand, but won’t say how!
“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”
— Thomas Jefferson (attributed to Jefferson, by his contemporaries)