Supreme Court Technology

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Supreme court and emerging technology The available Supreme Court decisions are well equipped to deal with emerging technological advancements to some extent by setting guidelines but many issues still occur because of the vagueness of the constitution. That is because with the technological advancements the interpretation of the constitution is then redefined for new situation. All the previous decisions of the Supreme Court will set a basic guideline for the future decisions of the court. Using these old decisions the Supreme Court will now have a basis for dealing with with the new technology such as text messaging, DNA profiling, GPS monitoring. These new technologies bring forth for the court new decisions in which they will redefine…show more content…
This fourth states that the person cannot have an unreasonable search and seizure. One way this was trespassed was the case of Katz v United States. In this case the issue brought forth was that wiretapping was considered a violation of the fourth amendment. “The Court overruled Olmstead to hold that the wiretap “ violated the privacy upon which the defendant justifiably relied” and thus constituted as a search and seizure”(Fordham , p.580). With this case it defined the fourth amendment to “protect the person not the place”. (Fordham, p.580). This means that even though the person is in public if he wanted to protect something and making it private then he has the legal right to. According to Justice Harlan there is a two-step inquiry to determine whether a defendant expected to keep something private. These two steps are , “(1) whethere the individual “exhibited an actual (subjective) expectation of privacy”; (2) whether the expectation is “one that society is prepare to recognize as reasonable.”“( Fordham, p.580). But this is not an effective way to determine if the fourth amendment was violate. The critical question is where we should impose on the citizens the risk of electronic listeners without a warrant. Another is the installation of beepers, this according to Justice Stevens “constituted as a seizure, which the Court has defined as “ some meaningful…show more content…
One of these this is the use of today’s cellphones, gps devices and such. They emit radio signals and gps signals to satelites. These devices can derive information like location of the person to the police. This is easily done using a mathematical formula, using triangulation like that of gps one can find where a person is by their cellphone. This is technically not illegal according to the fourth amendment because of four different things. “(1) affect the vehicl’s driving qualities; (2) draw power from the engine or battery; (3) take up room in the vehicle; or (4) alter the appearance of the vehicle”(Fordham. p.591). It did not harm the car that it was implanted and it would be like a police officer following the car himself when the defendant was driving on a public road. A new movement came forth that also said that the use of a GPS servailence requires a warrant. That is because “ the resulting picture, the court reasoned, was a “ highly detailed profile, not simply of where we go, but by easy inference of our associations—political, religious, amicable and amourous, to name only a few- and the patern of our professional and vocational pursuits.”(Fordham, p.600). This means that the gps delved too far into the personal life of the person it is observing which gives it a sense like that of a thermal detector. Now the debate is unknown if this is legal or

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