# How to Detect a GPS Transmitter **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 19, 2013, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-detect-a-gps-transmitter/653315 "2013-03-19T00:10:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![11811](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/1/9d8465/32.png) [@11811](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/11811)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 4:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-detect-a-gps-transmitter/653315/21 "2013-03-20T16:41:16Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > You can’t appeal a SCOTUS decision; there is nowhere to appeal it to. Okay, that makes sense. Per the Huffington Post [[Warrantless GPS Tracking Unconstitutional, Supreme Court Rules | HuffPost Latest News](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/warrantless-gps-tracking-_n_1224000.html)]: The installation of a GPS tracking device …could require a warrant – the Supreme Court unanimously held on Monday morning. The justices, however, employed radically different rationales to come to their answer, leaving unsettled the question of how much protection one may expect from the Fourth Amendment in the digital age. So what we’re waiting for is SCOTUS to elaborate on an exact decision? ---
**Author:** ![md2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/73ab20/32.png) [@md2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md2000)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-detect-a-gps-transmitter/653315/22 "2013-03-20T16:55:13Z")
> [@11811](#): > > Okay, that makes sense. > > Per the Huffington Post [[Warrantless GPS Tracking Unconstitutional, Supreme Court Rules | HuffPost Latest News](http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/23/warrantless-gps-tracking-_n_1224000.html)]: > > The installation of a GPS tracking device …could require a warrant – the Supreme Court unanimously held on Monday morning. The justices, however, employed radically different rationales to come to their answer, leaving unsettled the question of how much protection one may expect from the Fourth Amendment in the digital age. > > So what we’re waiting for is SCOTUS to elaborate on an exact decision? IIRC the decision was that the officers trespassed to install the GPS unit - therefore they violated his property by walking on it while installing the GPS. There was no urgent reason they could not have waited for a warrant. This of course sidesteps the issue - is installing a GPS and the tracking of a suspect a 4th amendment violation? Or… since your movements are “public”, you have no expectation of privacy and therefore since your movements are public no warrant is needed? This question was not really addressed by the majority decision, so it will have to wait until a case with less weasel room plops on their collective desk. SCOTUS is notorious for finding the cheap and simple way out when it suits them, rather than deciding the urgent questions of our age. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [March 20, 2013, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-detect-a-gps-transmitter/653315/23 "2013-03-20T17:08:55Z")
> [@11811](#): > > So what we’re waiting for is SCOTUS to elaborate on an exact decision? > [@md2000](#): > > IIRC the decision was that the officers trespassed to install the GPS unit - therefore they violated his property by walking on it while installing the GPS. There was no urgent reason they could not have waited for a warrant. Close. The “trespass” the majority was referring to was the warrantless touching of _the vehicle_; the government can’t just go around grabbing your stuff, per Scalia, even if the intrusion has no actual impact on you. Alito and the liberal wing argued that the GPS monitoring _itself_ was a Fourth Amendment violation (unlike the majority). Basically, they were concerned that under the majority standard, the government could find some way to track you that didn’t require physical touching of the vehicle (intercepting your OnStar signal, for example) and that would be just dandy. So, the open question is whether that latter technique would be okay. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-to-detect-a-gps-transmitter/653315.md?page=1)