4th Amendment Violation.

Byline: Derek Hawkins

7th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: United States of America v. Artez Brewer

Case No.: 18-2035

Officials: BAUER, ROVNER, and ST. EVE, Circuit Judges.

Focus: 4th Amendment Violation

Artez Brewer and his girlfriend, Robin Pawlak, traveled the country robbing banks, la Bonnie and Clyde. Agents today, however, have investigative tools that their Great Depression predecessors lacked. With a warrant for real-time, Global-Positioning-System (GPS) vehicle monitoring, a task force tracked Brewer's car to California where he and Pawlak committed another robbery. Brewer was arrested and essentially confessed to the crime spree. The government charged him with three counts of bank robbery, 18 U.S.C. 2113(a), and a jury convicted him on each count.

Brewer appeals. He argues that the government violated the Fourth Amendment by tracking him to California when the warrant only permitted monitoring in Indiana. But the in-state limitation did not reflect a probable-cause finding or a particularity requirement, and the Fourth Amendment is unconcerned with...