On C-SPAN Radio’ s historic Supreme Court Oral Argument this week: On November 8, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear the oral argument in “United States v. Jones”—a case about police use of a GPS tracking device and the 4th amendment prohibition against unreasonable search and seizure. And this Saturday, on C-SPAN Radio’s historic Supreme Court oral argument, a case cited in “United States v. Jones.” From 1983: “United States, Petitioner v. Knotts, Respondent”.
A drug task force in Minnesota was investigating a Mr. Armstrong, a co-conspirator of Mr. Knotts. After getting information that Armstrong was buying chloroform to make amphetamines, authorities arranged with the particular chemical company to put a radio transmitter in a false bottom in a five-gallon container of chloroform which Armstrong eventually picked up---and transferred to the car of another suspect, whom authorities followed both visually and with the use of the beeper as he drove from Minnesota to Wisconsin. When police lost visual contact, they used the beeper, which led them to the cabin of Knotts. After getting search warrants for Knotts’ property, authorities found a lab and the chloroform container which contained the beeper. That evidence was used to convict Knotts.
Listen to the courtroom recording of the oral argument in the 1983 case "United States v. Knotts”--Saturday, October 29 at 6 pm ET on C-SPAN Radio: 90.1 FM in the Washington, DC area, online at Cspanradio.org and nationwide on XM Satellite Radio, channel 119. The audio and information in this program are courtesy of the Oyez Project at IIT Chicago-Kent College of Law at: http://www.oyez.org/