United States v. Jones (10-1259)
argument 10-1259United States v. Jones
Supreme Court of the United States
1h 3m
6 speakers
8 chapters
transcribed 6 days ago
official recording ↗
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the United States v. Jones case and why is it being heard today?
We'll hear argument first this morning in case ten twelve fifty nine, United States versus Jones. Mr. Drieban.
Mr Chief Justice, and may it please the Court. Since this Court's decision in Cats versus United States, the Court has recognised a basic dichotomy under the Fourth Amendment. What a person seeks to preserve as private in the enclave of his own home. Or in a private letter. or inside of his vehicle when he is travelling is a subject of Fourth Amendment protection. But what he reveals to the world, such as his movements in a car on a public roadway, is not. In Knott's versus United States, this court applied that principle to hold that visual and beeper surveillance of a vehicle travelling on the public roadways infringed no Fourth Amendment expectation of privacy.
Knott's, though, seems to me much more like traditional surveillance. You're following the car and the beeper just helps you follow it uh from a from a slightly greater distance. That was thirty years ago. The technology is very different and you get a lot more information from the GPS surveillance than you do from following a beeper.
The technology is different, Mr Chief Justice, but a crucial fact in Knotts that shows that this was not simply amplified visual surveillance is that the officers actually feared detection in Knott's as the car crossed from Minnesota to Wisconsin. uh the driver began to do certain U turns and the police broke off visual surveillance. They lost track of the car for a full hour. They only were able to discover it by having a beeper receiver in a helicopter that detected the beeps from the radio transmitter in the can of chlorophyll. That's
a good example of the change in technology. That's a lot of work. to follow the car. They've got to listen to the beeper. When they lose it they've got to call in the helicopter. Here they just sit back in the station and then when they they push a button whenever they want to find out where the car is. They look at data from a month and find out everywhere it's been in the past month. That that seems to me dramatically different.
But it doesn't expose anything, Mr. Chief Justice, that isn't already exposed to public view for anyone who wanted to watch. And that was the crucial principle that the court applied to.
Under that rationale, could you put a beeper surreptitiously on the man's overcoat or sportcoat?
Probably not, Justice Kennedy. And the reason is that this court in Cairo versus United States, United States versus Cairo, specifically distinguished the possibility of following a car on a public roadways from determining the location of an object in a place where a person has a reasonable expectation. Oh no, this is
the special device that measures only streets and public elevators and public buildings.
In in that event, Justice Kennedy, there is a serious question about whether the installation of such a device would implicate either a search or a seizure. But if it did not, the public m movements of somebody do not implicate a seizure. Well that's the question. And on that
latter point, uh you might just be aware that I have serious reservations that there wasn't that there about the the way in which this beaver was installed, but you can get to that at at your convenience.
Mr. Drip Green, I I'd like to get to it now. Uh Uh uh. Happy to your honor. I have to give a little prologue to to my question. Uh when when uh wiretapping first uh came before this court We held that it was not a violation of the Fourth Amendment, because the Fourth Amendment uh says that uh the uh the the people shall be secured in their persons, houses, papers, and effects against unreasonable searches and seizures. And wiretapping just picked up conversations, that's not persons, houses, papers and effects. Later on we reversed ourselves and as you mentioned, Katz established the new criterion. which is is there an invasion of privacy? Does uh uh Are you obtaining information that a person had a reasonable expectation to be kept private?
I think that was wrong. I don't think that was the original uh meaning of the Fourth Amendment, but nonetheless it's been around for so long we're we're not gonna overrule that.
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Chapters
8 chapters
1
What is the United States v. Jones case and why is it being heard today?
0:02–9:13
2
How does modern GPS technology differ from the old beeper surveillance discussed in Knotts and Cairo?
9:13–17:35
3
Why do the Justices debate whether installing a GPS device is a trespass or a search?
17:35–25:31
4
What is the Court’s reasoning on the expectation of privacy for a car traveling on public roads?
25:31–32:58
5
Does the size or placement of a GPS tracker affect whether it constitutes a seizure?
32:58–40:13
6
How might 24‑hour, month‑long GPS tracking be viewed as a ‘1984‑type’ invasion of privacy?
40:13–47:41
7
Should Congress, not the Court, set limits on pervasive electronic surveillance?
47:41–55:48
8
What is the final ruling on whether the GPS tracking in United States v. Jones violated the Fourth Amendment?
55:48–1:03:30