SWITCH: Mobile | ePaper | Subscribe

Homes Rentals Jobs Autos Contests

Jesse J. Holland

(PAUL SAKUMA/The Associated Press) Yasir Afifi is seen at his home in San Jose, Calif., where a GPS tracking device was placed on his car.

Supreme Court bars police from GPS tracking without warrant

Tim Gurrister, Jesse J. Holland, Pete Yost Standard-Examiner, The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, January 24, 2012 - 7:35am

WASHINGTON -- In a rare defeat for law enforcement, the Supreme Court unanimously agreed on Monday to bar police from installing GPS technology to track suspects without first getting a judge's approval. The justices made clear it wouldn't be their final word on increasingly advanced high-tech surveillance of Americans.

Indicating they will be monitoring the growing use of such technology, five justices said they could see constitutional and privacy problems with police using many kinds of electronic surveillance for long-term tracking of citizens' movements without warrants.

While the justices differed on legal rationales, their unanimous outcome was an unusual setback for government and police agencies grown accustomed to being given leeway in investigations in post-Sept. 11 America, including by the Supreme Court. The views of at least the five justices raised the possibility of new hurdles down the road for police who want to use high-tech surveillance of suspects, including various types of GPS technology.

Crime, GPS, National Government, U.S. Supreme Court, Utah, Featured, Law Enforcement, National Read more Comments

(PABLO MARTINEZ MONSIVAIS/The Associated Press) In this Oct. 31, 2011, file photo Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain speaks at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research (AEI) in Washington. Cain does not shy away from using race as a talking point, much to the consternation of liberal and independent blacks. He said blacks have been “brainwashed” into voting for Democrats in large numbers and shuns the term “African-American,” preferring to call himself an “American black conservative.”

Racial politics return with Cain allegations

Jesse J. Holland The Associated Press

Last updated Sunday, November 6, 2011 - 4:52pm

WASHINGTON — Herman Cain’s rise as a presidential contender was supposed to prove that race didn’t matter in the Republican Party. Cain is fast making it the only thing that does.

Herman Cain, Politics, Race, Sexual Harassment, National Read more Comments

(ALEX BRANDON/The Associated Press) Judge Sonia Sotomayor beams as President Barack Obama applauds her during a White House East Room ceremony in Washington to announce her nomination. Obama is moving at a historic pace to try to diversify the nation’s federal judges: Nearly three of every four people he’s had confirmed to the federal bench are women or minorities, the first president ever who hasn’t selected a majority of white males for lifetime judgeships.

Obama picks more females, minorities for judges

Jesse J. Holland The Associated Press

Last updated Tuesday, September 13, 2011 - 7:08am

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is moving at a historic pace to try to diversify the nation’s federal judiciary: Nearly three of every four people he has gotten confirmed to the federal bench are women or minorities. He is the first president who hasn’t selected a majority of white males for lifetime judgeships.

Courts, Diversity, Judges, President Barack Obama, National Read more Comments

Clemens case suddenly over; mistrial declared

Jesse J. Holland, Niedra Pickler The Associated Press

Last updated Thursday, July 14, 2011 - 9:25pm

WASHINGTON -- One minute Roger Clemens was on trial for his freedom. Then, on just the second day of testimony, it was suddenly all over and the former baseball star was outside signing autographs for fans.

Almost as soon as it began, Clemens' perjury trial ended Thursday -- in a mistrial the judge blamed on prosecutors and said a "first-year law student" would have known to avoid.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton left the question of a new trial up in the air. But he called a halt to the trial under way after prosecutors showed jurors evidence that he had ruled out -- videotaped revelations that a teammate had said he'd told his wife Clemens confessed to using a drug.

MLB, Courts, Sports, Steroids, Baseball Read more Comments