The Government's New Right to Track Your Every Move With GPS

www.newsyahoo.com ^ | 8-25-10 | Adam Cohen

[444Flyer]

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.

[444Flyer]

"...After all, if government agents can track people with secretly planted GPS devices virtually anytime they want, without having to go to a court for a warrant, we are one step closer to a classic police state - with technology taking on the role of the KGB or the East German Stasi."

[crosshairs]

Damn. Now they’re gonna know how many times I have to get up in the night to take a leak and sometimes an Obama.

[FReepaholic]

Can’t they track us now via our cellphone signal? Do they have to have a warrant for that?

[cranked]

This was the major concern with GPS when it first came out....adds a whole new dimension to “Big Brother is Watching you”.....

[bubbacluck]

I pity the fool who has to track me. They will be bored unto death.

[NonValueAdded]

Then again, this is the 9th Circus, the most overturned Circus in the tent.

[Ronaldus Magnus]

I believe that there are people in prison today for doing just this (usually ex-husbands). This ruling could conceivably affect their convictions and create a new standard for legal behavior for everyone.

[EQAndyBuzz]

“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. “

Then again, I have the right to defend my property and if someone decides to come on mine in the middle of the night, the results will not be pretty.

[DCBryan1]

Then again, I have the right to defend my property and if someone decides to come on mine in the middle of the night, the results will not be pretty.

Note to feds violating my Constitutional rights....wearing ninja suits on my property at night might get you into a gunfight. Lots of feds might end up taking a dirt nap with laws such as in TX.

[Dr. Marten]

Ping.

[NonValueAdded]

Where in the 9th Circus jurisdiction do you have that right to defend your property, assuming you mean with deadly force?

[Yo-Yo]

Invest in one of these.

[Walmartian]

I’ve got a garage.

[WKUHilltopper]

And yet the tyranny continues.

[libertarian27]

I’ve got a garage.

'Your garages, they belong to us

Pay Property taxes?

[Secret Agent Man]

They’ll just tag your vehicle when it’s parked somewhere. If they want to tag it they will tag it.

[Dr. Marten]

"Can’t they track us now via our cellphone signal? Do they have to have a warrant for that?"

Correct, and no, they do not need a warrant to track your location. The big three mobile carriers have an interface where law enforcement officials can log on with their ID# to track the real-time location of any user.

There is currently a federal initiative that provides welfare recipients with cell phones loaded with 70 free minutes per month at taxpayer expense. Naturally, these mobile phones also have GPS capabilities as required by law. This means those who might not otherwise have the ability to get a cell phone on their own credit standing are now traceable by the government as well.

When will the people of this country stand and say ENOUGH is ENOUGH?

[RightOnTheBorder]

Texas law may exonerate you, but the DOJ will file suit against you for violating the agent’s constitutional right to break into your property (now that it has been established as a right).

[Comparative Advantage]

Is that a joke or for real?

[Pan_Yans Wife]

ping