Expanding on a 2019 decision that provided defendants an opportunity to challenge global positioning system monitoring as a condition of probation, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court provided further insight last week on how to assess GPS monitoring’s reasonableness, according to the defendant’s attorney.
More than three years ago, the SJC held in Commonwealth v. Feliz that GPS monitoring as a condition of probation constitutes a search under art. 14 of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights and the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution. In order for GPS monitoring as a condition of probation to be constitutional, the government must establish that such monitoring outweighs the privacy intrusion, according to the SJC’s order in the present case, Commonwealth v. Roderick.
