In a lecture at The University of Toledo College of Law on March 1, attorney Stephen C. Leckar will discuss the Supreme Court’s recent decision in U.S. v. Jones, which places limits on warrantless GPS surveillance. Leckar argued U.S. v. Jones on behalf of his client, respondent Antoine Jones, after GPS data was used as evidence in Jones’s drug-trafficking conspiracy conviction.

Leckar will speak at 11:45 a.m. Thursday, March 1, in the Law Center Auditorium. His lecture, “U.S. v. Jones: How We Got There and What We Learned,” is a part of Toledo Law’s Day After Speaker Series. The lecture is free and open to the public.

In a line of cases spanning several decades, the United States Supreme Court has considered police use of new technology, from telephone wiretaps to thermal imaging devices, through the lens of the Fourth Amendment’s protections against unreasonable search and seizure. In U.S. v. Jones, No. 10-1259, the court examined the warrantless use of the Global Positioning System (GPS) to track a suspect’s car.

In its Jan. 23 decision in the case, the Supreme Court held that attachment of a GPS tracking device and use of the device to monitor a car’s location for 28 days is a “search” for purposes of the Fourth Amendment. In the weeks since, experts and commentators have lit up the blogosphere with clashing views on whether the court’s decision permits shorter-term surveillance and under what circumstances a warrant will be required. The spirited debate continues, and it seems certain that the court will grapple with questions of police surveillance and electronic privacy again soon.

“We are delighted to have a participant in one of the most consequential cases of this year’s Supreme Court docket – a case that will influence the court’s treatment of all manner of police surveillance for years to come,” said Toledo Law Dean Daniel J. Steinbock.

Leckar, an attorney at Shainis & Peltzman Chartered in Washington, D.C., has served as lead counsel in over 20 complex criminal appeals before the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. He is a graduate of Georgia State University and Duke University School of Law.

Each year as part of its Day After Speaker Series, Toledo Law invites a lawyer who will argue before the Supreme Court that term to visit the Law Center after the argument to share his or her experience and to discuss the case.

For more information contact Rachel Phipps, assistant to the dean for communications in the UT College of Law, at 419.530.2628 or rachel.phipps@utoledo.edu.

Media Coverage
The Blade (March 1, 2012)
The Blade (March 2, 2012)

Tags: College of Law