Homeland Security Newswire
Sept 13, 2011
This November the Supreme Court is gearing up to hear a landmark case which will decide how far law enforcement agencies can pry into an individual’s private life; federal judges argue that the use of GPS surveillance by law enforcement is an “Orwellian intrusion” into private life and violate the Fourth Amendment; meanwhile police say GPS tracking is simply a more efficient way to tail a suspect’s car or track their movements, things they can currently do without a warrant
This November the Supreme Court is gearing up to hear a landmark case which will decide how far law enforcement agencies can pry into an individual’s private life.
In recent years GPS enabled phones and devices have proven to be a treasure trove of personal data, beaming constant round the clock updates on an individual’s activity. With the increasing ubiquity of these devices, their legality has become the center of a hot debate that has divided the nation’s lower courts. In several recent rulings, judges have called the devices “Orwellian” or Big Brother-esque and worried that they violate the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable search and seizure.
For instance in April, Judge Diane P. Wood of the federal appeals court in Chicago wrote that using GPS surveillance would “make the system that George Orwell depicted in his famous novel, ‘1984,’ seem clumsy.”
3 Responses to “Supreme Court to rule on age of “Big Brother” surveillance”
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
When you got a “Supreme” Court justice named clarence thomas, the one who thinks it’s ok for the police to beat a handcuffed prisoner, I wouldn’t expect too much from the “Supreme” Court. So far they have shown no respect for the American Bill of Rights and why should we believe with this case of personal privacy they should be any different?
Oh Boy…..another heartbreaking 5-4 decision with an eloquently written decent……..sigh
The thing that confuses me is why I need 9 politically appointed judges to write 1000′s of pages concerning their opinions on a couple of easily understood sentences.
the sage Reply:
September 13th, 2011 at 4:09 pm
It can be tedious to keep slaves believing they are really free.