In the Digital Age, SCOTUS faces a difficult task when deciding if searches by electronic surveillance violate the Fourth Amendment. Identify types of electronic surveillance that have been named as Fourth Amendment searches, and briefly explain the reasoning of the Court in making its decision

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

SCOTUS has decided that thermal imaging and GPS tracking are Fourth Amendment searches. In the case of thermal imagers, SCOTUS concluded that, although there was no physical trespass of the house, the discovery and measurement of heat from a home is a Fourth Amendment search. In the opinion the Court stated "when the Government uses a device that is not in general public use, to explore details of the home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a ‘search' and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant.".

Regarding GPS, SCOTUS held that the government physically occupied private property for the purpose of obtaining information. Given that the Fourth Amendment protects property, the placement of a GPS tracker on private property constitutes a Fourth Amendment search.