{"id":6793,"date":"2012-03-08T15:33:43","date_gmt":"2012-03-08T15:32:19","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"-0001-11-30T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-08T15:32:19","slug":"en-US","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=6793","title":{"rendered":"Volokh: Concurring Opinions in Jones Lead FBI To Turn Off 3,000 GPS Devices, Considered a \u201cSea Change\u201d Within the Bureau"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Volokh: <a href=\"http:\/\/volokh.com\/category\/mosaic-theory-of-the-fourth-amendment\/\">Concurring Opinions in Jones Lead FBI To Turn Off 3,000 GPS Devices, Considered a \u201cSea Change\u201d Within the Bureau<\/a> by Orin Kerr:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Earlier today, I sent off to law reviews a new draft article on the implications of the mosaic theory of the Fourth Amendment introduced in the GPS case, United States v. Jones \u2014 and specifically the majority opinion for the DC Circuit (under the name United States v. Maynard ) and the concurring opinions of Justice Alito and Sotomayor. A recent speech by the general counsel of the FBI suggests that I\u2019m not the only one who thinks that the mosaic theory is a really big deal \u2014 and a lot more complicated than many realize:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>A Supreme Court decision has caused a \u201csea change\u201d in law enforcement, prompting the FBI to turn off nearly 3,000 Global Positioning System (GPS) devices used to track suspects, according to the agency\u2019s general counsel.<\/p>\n<p>When the decision-U.S. v. Jones-was released at the end of January, agents were ordered to stop using GPS devices immediately and told to await guidance on retrieving the devices, FBI general counsel Andrew Weissmann said in a recent talk at a University of San Francisco conference. Weissmann said the court\u2019s ruling lacked clarity and the agency needs new guidance or it risks having cases overturned . . . <\/p>\n<p>Weissmann said it wasn\u2019t Scalia\u2019s majority opinion that caused such turmoil in the bureau, but a concurring opinion written by Justice Samuel Alito. Alito, whose opinion was joined by Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer and Elena Kagan, agreed with the Court\u2019s conclusion in the case but wrote separately because his legal reasoning differed from the majority.<\/p>\n<p>Alito focused not on the attachment of the device, but the fact that law enforcement monitored Jones for about a month. Alito said \u201cthe use of longer-term GPS monitoring in investigations of most offenses impinges on expectations of privacy.\u201d . . . <\/p>\n<p>In his talk at a University of San Francisco Law Review Symposium, Weissmann suggested that Alito\u2019s concurrence means that several members of the court are concerned with long-term surveillance by technologies beyond GPS systems and that the FBI needs new guidance in order to ensure that evidence does not get thrown out.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI just can\u2019t stress enough,\u201d Weissmann said, \u201cwhat a sea change that is perceived to be within the department.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>. . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>. . .<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>b2evALnk.b2WPAutP <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=6793\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"pingsdone","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6793","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6793"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6793\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6793"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6793"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6793"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}