Privacy Seminar Speaker: Jim Harper, Senior Fellow, The Cato Institute

Thursday, March 13, 2014
3:30 - 4:45PM in 3120 Computer Science Instructional Center (CSI)

The Fourth Amendment at a Crossroads  The Supreme Court is gradually coming to terms with the effect information technology is having on the Fourth Amendment. In 2001, the Kyllo decision curtailed the use of high-tech devices for searching homes. In its early 2012 decision in United States v. Jones, a unanimous Court agreed that government agents can't attach a GPS device to a vehicle and track it for four weeks without a warrant. But the Court was divided as to rationale. The majority opinion in Jones found that attaching the device to the car was at the heart of the Fourth Amendment violation. Four concurring members of the Court felt that the government's tracking violated a "reasonable expectation of privacy." What is the right way to decide these cases? Fourth Amendment law is at a crossroads. Jim Harper will discuss where he believes the Court must go if privacy is to be protected as it was at the time the nation was founded.

As always, any student in the Honors College who has an interest in meeting our seminar speakers is welcome to attend class as our guest. Details on the course are at http://doubletap.cs.umd.edu/purtilo/239R/
Prof. Jim Purtilo   (purtilo@cs.umd.edu)