Technology, as everybody in Syracuse knows, can move pretty fast. It can move so quickly, in fact, that sometimes our criminal law system can have trouble keeping pace.

An important decision by the Supreme Court will likely bring at least one element of criminal defense law up to speed, however. The Supreme Court recently held that police cannot use GPS data on suspects whenever and wherever they want because that amounts to an unjust intrusion on people's personal liberties. Naturally, this decision has been cheered by criminal defense attorneys, who are often the front line of defense against the infringement of criminal suspect's rights.

All the Supreme Court justices had their own reasoning for reaching this decision, but their decisions all reflected the idea that allowing police to use GPS devices to track suspects or to access GPS data from the suspect's own devices whenever and wherever they would like was too intrusive.

Justice Sonia Sotomayor, for example, said that an awareness that the government was or could be watching would chill our expressive freedoms. There was also the concern that such an ability could easily be abused.

Now, this does not mean that GPS information cannot be used at all. It just means police cannot use it whenever and wherever they want. If police had a warrant and only used a certain amount of information during a specific time period, that would probably pass muster. And that's fine - just so long as police are not given free rein to do whatever they want.

Source: Bloomberg Businessweek, "Police Use of GPS Devices Limited by U.S. Supreme Court," Jan. 23, 2012