Supreme Court Makes a Course Correction AKRON, Ohio, Feb. 2, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- "After a 43 year absence, the U.S. Supreme Court restored property rights to Fourth Amendment jurisprudence," declared Jim Babka, President of the Downsize DC Foundation. In the case of Antoine Jones v. United States, the high court ruled 9-0 that it was illegal to attach a GPS tracking device to Mr. Jones' vehicle, without a warrant. "But what caught our attention, was the majority decision, written by Justice Scalia and signed by four other Justices," said Babka. A number of groups joined with Downsize DC to write the ONLY brief urging the Court to take up the case. We urged the Justices to ALSO restore the historical property rights understanding of the Fourth Amendment. It had been absent since Warden v. Hayden. The Court took up the case and then asked all parties briefing them to answer whether or not it was legal to attach a GPS without warrant or owner permission. Our legal team realized we had an exciting opportunity. We submitted another brief to the Court with a historical-textual answer to their question," explained Babka. And we were not disappointed. Scalia wrote, "The text of the Fourth Amendment reflects its close connection to property, since otherwise it would have referred simply to 'the right of the people to be secure against unreasonable searches and seizures'; the phrase 'in their persons, houses, papers and effects' would have been superfluous." Scalia even acknowledged how far the Court had strayed: "Our Fourth Amendment jurisprudence was tied to common-law trespass, at least until the latter half of the 20th century [but] our later cases... have deviated from that exclusively property-based approach" in favor of a more flexible, modernist analysis based upon the Court's perceptions of a "reasonable expectation of privacy." Babka concluded, "At least three other amicus briefs mentioned property rights in passing. But we majored in it! We alone asked the Justices to make a course correction. We're very excited about this victory for the American people, and the potential precedents that may come out of this landmark decision. Downsize DC Foundation is a non-profit educational organization. Its website is www.DownsizeDCFoundation.org SOURCE Downsize DC Foundation