Government's attachment of GPS to vehicle is a 4th Amendment search

Yesterday, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Jones, Case No. 10-1259, that the government's attachment of a GPS device to a vehicle and its subsequent monitoring of the vehicle's movements constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. Justice Scalia, who wrote the Court's opinion, employed a common law trespass analysis, rather than analyzing the respondent's reasonable expectation of privacy. The fact pattern and issues involved in this case were similar to those in last year's Grimes Moot Court Competition. To read the Court's opinion, simply click on the title to this blog entry.