Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/17pdf/16-402_h315.pdf
Page Number: 42.0

Cite as:  585 U. S. ____ (2018) 

15 

KENNEDY, J., dissenting 

ring  to  “ ‘twenty-four  hour  surveillance  of  any  citizen  of 
this  country  . . .  without  judicial  knowledge  or  supervi-
sion.’ ”  Id., at 283. 

Those  “different  constitutional  principles”  mentioned  in 
Knotts,  whatever  they  may  be,  do  not  apply  in  this  case. 
Here  the  Stored  Communications  Act  requires  a  neutral 
judicial  officer  to  confirm  in  each  case  that  the  Govern-
ment  has  “reasonable  grounds  to  believe”  the  cell-site
records “are relevant and material to an ongoing criminal 
investigation.”  18  U. S. C.  §2703(d).    This  judicial  check
mitigates  the  Court’s  concerns  about  “ ‘a  too  permeating
police  surveillance.’ ”  Ante,  at  6  (quoting  United  States  v. 
Di  Re,  332  U. S.  581,  595  (1948)).    Here,  even  more  so 
than in Knotts, “reality hardly suggests abuse.”  460 U. S., 
at 284. 

The Court’s reliance on Jones fares no better.  In Jones 
the  Government  installed  a  GPS  tracking  device  on  the 
defendant’s  automobile.  The  Court  held  the  Government 
searched  the  automobile  because  it  “physically  occupied 
private  property  [of  the  defendant]  for  the  purpose  of 
obtaining  information.”  565  U. S.,  at  404.    So  in  Jones  it 
was  “not  necessary  to  inquire  about  the  target’s  expecta-
tion  of  privacy  in  his  vehicle’s  movements.”    Grady  v. 
North Carolina, 575 U. S. ___, ___ (2015) (per curiam) (slip
op., at 3).

Despite  that  clear  delineation  of  the  Court’s  holding  in 
Jones,  the  Court  today  declares  that  Jones  applied  the
“ ‘different  constitutional  principles’ ”  alluded  to  in  Knotts 
to  establish  that  an  individual  has  an  expectation  of  pri- 
vacy in the sum of his whereabouts.  Ante, at 8, 12.  For that 
proposition  the  majority  relies  on  the  two  concurring
opinions  in  Jones,  one  of  which  stated  that  “longer  term 
GPS monitoring in investigations of most offenses impinges
on  expectations  of  privacy.”    565  U. S.,  at  430  (ALITO, J., 
concurring).
  But  Jones  involved  direct  governmental
surveillance  of  a  defendant’s  automobile  without  judicial