PART 4: “GPS Tracking Initiated at the Border” | US v. Ignjatov, GPS installed without a warrant

The Court concluded that “[o]nce the entity at issue is beyond the border, the concerns animating the border search doctrine, namely the integrity of the border, diminish, and the robust Fourth Amendment requirements adhere.” This was because the installation of a GPS device “implicates a search away from the border, once the target has gained entry into the country.

The placement of a GPS device at the border necessarily implicates a search away from the border, once the target has gained entry into the country. As Justice ALito noted in his concurring opinion in Jones, the OCurt defined the search as encompassing both the installation and use of the GPS, rather than separating the procedures. Therefore, this OCurt is hesitant to mechanically apply the border search doctrine where the search stretches far beyond the conduct at the border to create a “precise comprehensive record of a person’s public movement. Ultimately, the Court concludes the placement of a GPS device on a vehicle at the border, combined with the subsequent tracking of data over a prolonged period away from it, cannot be justified by the border search exception.

Read the full case here: https://www.nacdl.org/Document/United-States-v-Slavco-Ignjatov,-et-al