GPS & Location Tracking Devices

Rulings about beepers, GPS trackers on cars, and GPS monitors on people. Summaries from Criminal Defense Resources™ are general education for pro per/pro se defendants and families, not legal advice.

4 rulings, newest first.

• Grady v. North Carolina

  U.S. Supreme Court · March 30, 2015 · 575 U.S. 306 (2015)

  In a short unsigned opinion, the Court held that a state program that attaches a satellite-based (GPS) monitoring device to a person's body to track the person's movements is a Fourth Amendment search. It sent the case back for the state courts to decide whether the search was reasonable.

  GPS trackingSearch & seizure

• United States v. Jones

  U.S. Supreme Court · January 23, 2012 · 565 U.S. 400 (2012)

  The Court held that the government's installation of a GPS tracking device on a person's vehicle, and its use to monitor the vehicle's movements, was a search under the Fourth Amendment.

  Search & seizureGPS tracking

• United States v. Karo

  U.S. Supreme Court · July 3, 1984 · 468 U.S. 705 (1984)

  The Court held that monitoring a beeper inside a private home, in a place not open to visual surveillance, is a Fourth Amendment search that generally requires a warrant.

  GPS trackingSearch & seizure

• United States v. Knotts

  U.S. Supreme Court · March 2, 1983 · 460 U.S. 276 (1983)

  The Court held that using a radio beeper to follow a car on public roads was not a Fourth Amendment search, because a person traveling on public roads has no reasonable expectation of privacy in movements others could see.

  GPS trackingSearch & seizure