W.D.Mich.: GPS monitoring of vehicle valid, declining to follow Maynard

Live monitoring of GPS on defendant’s car four separate times did not violate the Fourth Amendment, straining to find a way to distinguish Maynard, and following the majority view. United States v. Walker, 771 F. Supp. 2d 803 (W.D. Mich. 2011):

As Defendant notes in her objections, the Supreme Court has not yet considered whether GPS monitoring of a vehicle’s location constitutes a Fourth Amendment search, but several circuit courts have and are split on the issue. (Objections ¶ 11.) Defendant relies on a recent decision by the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit holding that prolonged GPS monitoring — 24 hours a day for four weeks — was a Fourth Amendment search and was unreasonable without a warrant. United States v. Maynard, 615 F.3d 544 (D.C. Cir. 2010). It appears, however, that the great weight of the law from other federal circuits rejects this view. See United States v. Garcia, 474 F.3d 994 (7th Cir. 2007) (holding that GPS tracking is not a search); United States v. Pineda-Moreno, 591 F.3d 1212, 1217 (9th Cir. 2010) (“We conclude that the police did not conduct an impermissible search of [defendant’s] car by monitoring its location with mobile tracking devices.”), reh’g en banc denied 617 F.3d 1120 (9th Cir. 2010); see also United States v. Sparks, No. 10-10067, 750 F. Supp. 2d 384, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 120257 at *34 (D. Mass. 2010) (“[N]o warrant or other court order is necessary to install or monitor the GPS.”); Morton v. Nassau County Police Dep’t, No. 05-CV-4000, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 87558, at *10 (E.D.N.Y. Nov. 27, 2007) (“[T]he use of the GPS Device was not an unreasonable search or seizure in violation of the Fourth Amendment.”); United States v. Jesus-Nunez, No. 1:10-CR-00017, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 76107, at *12 (M.D. Pa. July 27, 2010) (“[T]here was no Fourth Amendment search or seizure by the Government’s use of the GPS device.”); United States v. Williams, 650 F. Supp. 2d 633, 668 (W.D. Ky. 2009) (“[T]he Court is comfortable in concluding that no search warrant or other court order was required to permit the officers to lawfully attach the electronic tracking devices to the exterior of [defendants’] automobiles.”); United States v. Burton, 698 F. Supp. 2d 1303, 1307 (N.D. Fla. 2010) (“There is no Fourth Amendment violation for using a tracking device … where the substitute is for an activity, namely following a car on a public street, that is unequivocally not a search within the meaning of the amendment.” (internal quotation marks omitted)).

Same outcome: United States v. Fisher, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13749 (W.D. Mich. January 11, 2011).