January 23 2012 THE HALI

JANUARY 23 2012

Held: The Government’s attachment of the GPS device to the vehicle, and its use of that device to monitor the vehicle’s movements, constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. Pp. 3–12.
(a)
The Fourth Amendment protects the “right of the people to besecure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures.” Here, the Government’s physical intrusion on an “effect” for the purpose of obtaining information constitutes a “search.” This type of encroachment on an area enumeratedin the Amendment would have been considered a search within the meaning of the Amendment at the time it was adopted. Pp. 3–4.