A legal organization that advocates for constitutional freedom is watching a 4th Amendment case currently being reviewed by the U.S. Supreme Court.
The case is Carpenter v. The United States, which reached the court from the 6th U.S. Court of Appeals.
The case involves a gang of armed robbers who were tracked by authorities after one of the robbers confessed to the crime and gave up his cell phone number and the numbers of his accomplices. Using cell phone data, authorities analyzed the usage history to trace their movements for 127 days, a Washington Post story explained.
Curt Levey of the Committee for Justice says long before cell phones came into being, court rulings would suggest the police can monitor phone movements. That doesn't apply now, he insists.
“I think that would be a very bad interpretation when applied to today's technology,” says Levey, “because the government might as well put a GPS device on your car and the Supreme Court has said the government can't do that without a warrant.”
Read more of our interview on Carpenter v. United States here.