1. In addition to vehicles, can you think of any other examples of personal effects that are protected under the Fourth Amendment? Does one have a reasonable expectation of privacy when driving or walking in plain view along public roads or sidewalks?

2. What if Jones had been driving a stolen vehicle? Would the placement of a GPS device on a stolen vehicle still constitute a search?

3. What if the police had monitored Jones’s personal movements by operating a miniature unmanned aerial vehicle in public airspace (i.e., a small drone equipped with a high-resolution camera)? Would the police still need a warrant under this hypothetical scenario?

Antoine Jones was the owner of the Levels Nightclub in Washington, D.C. (see Figure 2.2). The police suspected Jones of drug trafficking and asked a judge for a search warrant to attach a global positioning system (GPS) tracking device to the underside of Jones’s Jeep. The judge granted the warrant, but the police exceeded the scope of the warrant in both geography and length of time. Using evidence obtained from the GPS device, Jones was eventually charged and convicted of participating in a criminal conspiracy. Jones appealed his conviction, arguing that 24-hour surveillance through a GPS tracker violates the Fourth Amendment’s right against unreasonable search and seizure. The United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia overturned Jones’s conviction, holding that the police action was an unlawful search because it violated Jones’s reasonable expectation of privacy. The Government appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The U.S. Supreme Court held that installing a GPS tracking device on a vehicle and then using the device to monitor the vehicle’s movements constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. However, although the Court voted unanimously that placing a GPS device on a suspect’s car is a search, the justices were split 5-4 regarding the fundamental reasons or rationale in support of the Court’s ultimate conclusion. The majority held that by physically installing a GPS device on Jones’s car, the police had committed a trespass against Jones’s personal effects.

“The Fourth Amendment provides in relevant part that ‘[t]he right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated.’ It is beyond dispute that a vehicle is an ‘effect’ as that term is used in the Amendment.  .  .  .  We hold that the Government’s installation of a GPS device on a target’s vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a ‘search.’ . . . It is important to be clear about what occurred in this case: The Government physically occupied private property for the purpose of obtaining information. We have no doubt that such a physical intrusion would have been considered a ‘search’ within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment when it was adopted. . . . The text of the Fourth Amendment reflects its close connection to property, since otherwise it would have referred simply to ‘the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures’; the phrase ‘in their per-sons, houses, papers, and effects’ would have been superfluous.”

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