Goodlatte issues statement on Supreme Court ruling on GPS tracking
Bob Goodlatte. Photo by Sam Dean, The Roanoke Times.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that cops can’t put a GPS tracking device on a suspect’s car without a search warrant.
However, the court split on just how far the ruling should go and whether and how it should apply to other technologies.
It was a ruling in which the justices didn’t line up along traditional left-right lines, with Sonia Sotomayor (an Obama appointee) siding with Antoni Scalia (a Reagan appointee) for part of the ruling, while Samuel Alito (a George W. Bush appointee) siding with liberal justices on another part of the ruling.
In any case, Rep. Bob Goodlatte, R-Roanoke County, who is often involved in technology matters, issues this statement:
Congressman Bob Goodlatte issued this statement following today’s unanimous Supreme Court decision that law enforcement using GPS tracking technology to monitor vehicle movements without a search warrant violates the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures.
“I am encouraged by today’s unanimous Supreme Court decision which upholds Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights and confirms the fact that a warrant is necessary for tracking an individual’s movements with a GPS device. However, the Court stopped short of requiring a warrant for all geolocation information including that obtained from mobile telephones. I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act, which protects individual liberty by providing clear guidelines for when and how geolocation information can be accessed and used.”
Congressman Goodlatte is a lead cosponsor of the Geolocation Privacy and Surveillance (GPS) Act, legislation introduced by Representative Chaffetz (R-UT). This bipartisan legislation provides clarity for government agencies, commercial entities, and the public regarding the legal procedures and protections that apply to geolocation information.
January 24, 2012 - 9:35 AM
I’m glad Bob Goodlatte supports the unanimous decision. It goes without saying that independent judicial branch-issued warrants should be required anytime our persons, papers or property are inspected, intruded upon or taken by the federal government. What scares me is that Bob believes that he needs to further define and narrow the Constitution by designing more legislation. The Constitution seems clear on these matters already. Whether it’s GPS trackers or geolocation data from personal cellphones or automobiles (OnStar, etc), judicial branch warrants are required. Period. As with the budget, and just about everything else, if Congress and the executive branch would simply follow the Constitution, we’d be a lot better off. If he wants to do something necessary, Mr Goodlatte should immediately stand up against indefinite and unwarranted military detention of American citizens by co-sponsoring “H.R. 3785: To repeal section 1021 of the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.” If he does this soon, he may get points with my supporters.