ACLU Statement on Supreme Court GPS Tracking Decision

Below is a statement from American Civil Liberties Union Legal Director Steven R. Shapiro on today's Supreme Court decision in U.S. v. Jones, in which the ACLU filed a friend-of-the-court brief. The Court ruled that police need a warrant to put a GPS tracking device on a person's car. The ACLU supports bipartisan bills introduced in both the House and Senate (the GPS Act) that would require warrants for GPS and cell phone tracking.

"Today's decision is an important victory for privacy. While this case turned on the fact that the government physically placed a GPS device on the defendant's car, the implications are much broader. A majority of the Court acknowledged that advancing technology, like cell phone tracking, gives the government unprecedented ability to collect, store and analyze an enormous amount of information about our private lives. Today's decision suggests that the court is prepared to address that problem. Congress needs to address the problem as well."

More information on government location tracking (including cell phone tracking, other federal court decisions and pending legislation) is available at:
www.aclu.org/tracked