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WI: "GPS reasonable under Fourth Amendment, but we don't like it"

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

Wisconsin (five days before Weaver) finds GPS tracking reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, but it is troubled by it and urges the legislature to limit it. State v. Sveum, 2009 Wisc. App. LEXIS 343 (May 7, 2009): P19 Accordingly, we conclude that no Fourth Amendment search or seizure occurs when police attach a GPS device to the outside of a vehicle while it is in a place accessible to the public and then use that device to track the vehicle while it is in public view. Because this case does not involve tracking information on the movement of Sveum's car within a place protected by the Fourth Amendment, it follows that the circuit court correctly rejected Sveum's Fourth Amendment suppression argument. P20 We are more than a little troubled by the conclusion that no Fourth Amendment search or seizure occurs when police use a GPS or similar device as they have here...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on May 15, 2009 (boomark / email).