As technology advances and the lines between public and private information are blurred, the privacy rights that are guaranteed to U.S. citizens by the Constitution are becoming increasingly difficult to discern. Most Floridians are aware that the government needs a warrant to search your home, but is the government allowed to track you 24 hours a day with GPS technology in Florida?

This week, the Supreme Court addressed this question for the country. The court was examining the case of a suspected drug kingpin, who had been sentenced to life in prison for felony drug charges after prosecutors monitored him with a GPS device that was attached to his Jeep.

Prosecutors argued that doing this was no different than partaking in more traditional police surveillance methods. But on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously to restrict police use of GPS devices to track criminal suspects. However, the ruling is limited to the use of GPS devices that are attached to a suspect's car.

The Supreme Court ruled that prosecutors violated the suspect's rights by attaching the GPS device to his vehicle. The majority opinion stated that attaching a GPS device to a suspect's car without a warrant constitutes an unreasonable search and seizure, from which the suspect is protected under the Fourth Amendment.

The court did not say that warrants are needed to use GPS technology for suspect surveillance in other cases, just in those wherein the device is attached to a car.

However, this decision does mean that it is questionable for authorities to use GPS technology without warrants. Often, a skilled criminal defense attorney can fight to have a case dismissed by arguing that search and seizure violations or other evidence gathering issues took place.

Source: Washington Post, "Supreme Court: Warrants needed in GPS tracking," Robert Barnes, Jan, 23, 2012