(TheLastPatriotNews.com) – In a closely watched new ruling, a federal appeals court has decided that the US Constitution does not allow geofence searches, which could impact the convictions of people sentenced over the January 6, 2021, events at the US Capitol.
The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that geofence searches, which use GPS or other technology to identify individuals’ locations at specific times, violate the U.S. Constitution.
The decision emerged from a case involving a robbery, WND reports.
Judge James Ho, considered a potential Supreme Court nominee under a future Trump presidency, clearly articulated the prohibition of geofence technology in a ruling now conflicting with another circuit’s decision, thereby increasing the likelihood of this issue reaching the Supreme Court.
“Geofence warrants are powerful tools for investigating and deterring crime. The defendants here engaged in a violent robbery – and likely would have gotten away with it, but for this technology. So I fully recognize that our panel decision today will inevitably hamper legitimate law enforcement interests,” the judge said.
“Hamstringing the government is the whole point of our Constitution. Our Founders recognized that the government will not always be comprised of publicly spirited officers – and that even good faith actors can be overcome by the zealous pursuit of legitimate public interests. ‘If men were angels, no government would be necessary.’ The Federalist No. 51 … ‘If angels were to govern men, neither external nor internal controls on government would be necessary.’ But ‘experience has taught mankind the necessity of auxiliary precautions.’ It’s because of ‘human nature’ that it’s ‘necessary to control the abuses of government,’” Ho elaborated.
ArsTechnica has noted that geofence warrants, which identify all users or devices within a certain geographic area, have been deemed unconstitutional by the circuit court as they constitute unreasonable searches.
The ruling explicitly states, “This court ‘cannot forgive the requirements of the Fourth Amendment in the name of law enforcement.’ Accordingly, we hold that geofence warrants are general warrants categorically prohibited by the Fourth Amendment.”
The case in question involved three men from Mississippi convicted of a 2018 armed robbery.
Although geofence warrants were ruled unconstitutional, the court did not allow the suppression of evidence gathered through them because law enforcement had relied on these warrants in good faith.
Typically, these searches involve querying the Google database for data on individuals, times, and locations.
Google then supplies law enforcement with an anonymized list of potential suspects, which can lead to further investigations and the identification of account holders.
Previously, the Supreme Court acknowledged that tracking individuals via cellphone data intrudes on a person’s reasonable expectation of privacy.
Investigative journalist Julie Kelly highlighted that the federal government utilized information from geofence warrants to identify participants in the January 6 protests.Bottom of Form
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