…by law does not have the power of judicial review. I say this as a strict interpreter of the Constitution. Judicial review was established by John Marshall, the ultimate supreme court chief justice, in the way that George Washington was the ultimate President, this however is a rant for a different day. Today we’ll be focusing in on a power the Supreme Court does have, which is to interpret the Constitution as it applies to cases brought before them. They use this power all the time, and much to my dismay they have a tendency to use it both against the general wants of the general population (read here as the majority) and for expanding the power of the government.
The latest travesty to come out of the highest ranking court in the land, and yes I see this as a travesty, is the case that now lets them put a tracking device on your car if you happen to keep your car in the driveway. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, your driveway now counts as public, at least for the purposes of the police putting a tracking device on your vehicle. Unfortunately the court’s reasoning on this one is pretty sound. They basically ruled that since anyone, cop or otherwise, has access to your vehicle when it is in your driveway and since anyone, cop or otherwise, can put a tracer on your vehicle that is sitting in the driveway, then the cops should be allowed to put tracers on your car if it is in your driveway.
And to be fair, it sounds like a good idea. Bad guys drive cars. Bad guys probably don’t park their cars in garages or behind gates more often than the rest of us. Why not let the cops put a bug on their cars? Well there are a few good reasons. The first is that this is another nail in the coffin of the ideal of personal property being personal. Via the imminent domain cases, the Supreme Court decided that if the government wants your land then they can take it as long as they can prove to themselves that there is “just cause” to take the land. This is another ruling in that line of thinking, basically making your driveway, and in fact anything not fenced or gated, to be considered public by law enforcement agencies. Just one more step toward the, fairly communist, goal of “no such thing as personal property.”
Another bad thing about this. It’s illegal to purchase and use a GPS or transmitter blocking device inside the United States. Therefore you can’t just put a GPS blocker on your car and then not worry about. If the cops decide to bug your car and they get no signal they now have probable cause to get a warrant to search the vehicle for a GPS blocker, and hey, while they’re there maybe they also search the car for anything else they might want to as well. It’s just another example of the government taking away your right to protect yourself and your privacy.
Also I have the sneaking feeling that this wont actually lead to that many more arrests of actual bad guys and more arrests of average citizens who are breaking minor or trivial laws. Cops are gonna use this to tag cars of suspects, sure no problem, but it’s not like most police don’t already have evidence and a really good idea about how to find and get these guys without the tracers. On the other hand, innocent suspects for larger crimes will now have their personal lives on public display to the police department. Maybe if police departments were run by robots this would be okay, but it’s run by people and people talk, and gossip, and over think things. Hell, some guy could have his entire reputation ruined because some cop bugs his car, he makes a wrong turn on a bad street, stops to ask for directions, the cop mentions to his wife over diner that Bob Johnson may have visited a hooker the previous day then BAM! Bob’s now the town pervert. Way to go Supreme Court. Way to screw Bob’s life up forever. Now his wife divorces him and he only gets to see the kids on weekends. On top of that he loses his job, takes up drinking, and ends up getting run over by a Semi-truck while trying to hitch a ride to Mexico.
Is that what you want Supreme Court? You want people like Bob ruined and turned into little more than bloody smears on the interstate? Well I hope you’re happy, cause that’s what you got.
