Prof. Orin Kerr Cited by Supreme Court in Fourth Amendment Case

In its January 23 decision in United States v. Jones, the U.S. Supreme Court concluded that when the government installs a GPS surveillance device on a car, it is a Fourth Amendment search. Professor Orin Kerr was cited in both the majority opinion and in a concurring opinion for his article, The Fourth Amendment and New Technologies: Constitutional Myths and the Case for Caution, 102 Mich. L. Rev. 801 (2004).  The majority opinion relies heavily on Orin’s theory of the Fourth Amendment and property as set forth in the first part of the article.

Orin is also quoted extensively in NPR’s analysis of the case.

Update: Orin clarified a misconception about the case on the blog, the Volokh Conspiracy

“A lot of the early press reports on United States v. Jones report that the Supreme Court held that the government needs a warrant to install a GPS device. But that’s not correct, actually. The Court merely held that the installation of the GPS was a Fourth Amendment “search.” The Court declined to reach when the installation of the device is reasonable or unreasonable. As the opinion explains on page 12 of the slip opinion[.]“