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NY: GPS monitoring a vehicle's movements without exigent circumstances violates state constitution

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

The New York Court of Appeals today decided Weaver v. People, No. 53 (May 12, 2009), holding that the NY Constitution prohibits the use of GPS transmitters on vehicles without a warrant, following other state courts analyzing the issue under their constitutions. This is a stunningly prescient opinion: At first blush, it would appear that Knotts does not bode well for Mr. Weaver, for in his case, as in Knotts, the surveillance technology was utilized for the purpose of tracking the progress of a vehicle over what may be safely supposed to have been predominantly public roads and, as in Knotts, these movements were at least in theory exposed to "anyone who wanted to look" (id. at 281). This, however, is where the similarity ends. Knotts involved the use of what we must now, more than a quarter of a century later, recognize to have been a very primitive tracking device...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 12, 2009 (boomark / email).