TN: A court order for GPS with PC doesn’t have to be a “search warrant” to be valid

The court order for a tracking device (GPS) was based on probable cause. There is no requirement that it be a “search warrant” as long is it is based on probable cause and is issued by a neutral and detached magistrate. The language of the warrant for drugs was not overbroad, and the same language had been held valid in a 2010 case. “‘The warrant does not give a particular description of any of the items authorized to be seized. The absence of a more particularized description does not make the warrant a general warrant, however, because a warrant to seize property that is illicit by reason of its character need not provide a specific description of each item to be seized.’” State v. Lockhart, 2015 Tenn. Crim. App. LEXIS 726 (September 8, 2015). What is a “search warrant” but a court order? As long as all the elements of a search warrant are met, what’s the difference? “Pleadings must be construed so as to do justice,” FRCP 8(e), so why not court orders?