The case went to the Supreme Court last November. At the time, we wrote:

Assigning a cop to tail every suspected criminal isn't physically possible, but that's no longer a problem with current trackers. "These devices—you put it on a car and leave it alone and check back in a month or two months or a year and have a record of where that person has been," [Cato Institute Fellow Julian] Sanchez says. "Is that something the Fourth Amendment would permit? And you intuitively want to say ‘no.’ "

The Court agrees. Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the opinion, saying that the government's decision to track Jones 24 hours a day—even on public roads—was still a search, and upheld the appeals court's decision that it was a violation of Jones' rights.

Photo by TexasGOPVote.com via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: You think there would also not be a search if you put a GPS device on all of our cars, monitored our movements for a month? You think you're entitled to do that under your theory?

MR. DREEBEN: The justices of this Court?

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: Yes.

(Laughter.)

MR. DREEBEN: Under our theory and under this Court's cases, the justices of this Court when driving on public roadways have no greater expectation—

CHIEF JUSTICE ROBERTS: So your answer is yes, you could tomorrow decide that you put a GPS device on every one of our cars, follow us for a month; no problem under the Constitution?

Dreeben tried to advance his argument by saying that legally, the justices could all be tailed by an officer of the law. The case will be decided next year.

Photo by TexasGOPVote.com via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License

While MPD had a warrant to put a GPS tracker on Jones' car when it was in D.C., they opted to let the warrant expire, which effectively meant they tracked him without a warrant. He was then tracked 24 hours a day for a month.

The decision in this case will set precedent for whether it's okay for police to GPS track a suspect without a warrant, and whether they violate the Fourth Amendment of the Constitution (protection from unreasonable search and seizure) by doing so.

Libertarian privacy expert and Cato Institute research fellow Julian Sanchez talked to me about the case last month. Sanchez, who says it's "incredibly insane" that the conviction garnered Jones a life in prison sentence, adds that Fourth Amendment protections are most frequently "whittled down" by drug cases, because they are consensual criminal transactions. That is, the victim/buyer has no incentive to give up information.

But when the D.C. Circuit Court arrived at its decision to overturn Jones' conviction, it "cross-applied precedent" from a completely different area of the law, according to Sanchez. Which may get them into trouble. The court took the "mosaic theory," which has traditionally been applied to Freedom of Information Act requests, and used it to take Jones' side. This kind of "novel" approach to judicial rule-making is traditionally frowned upon.

The mosaic theory holds that using technology to track every moment in public—say, buying groceries, driving down 395, meeting a friend for a drink, etc—can add up to a violation of privacy since no one expects someone to track all of their public movements.

"The heart of this is that if your standard is 'what level of privacy do people reasonably expect?' then you have to grapple with the fact that people’s expectations are complicated," Sanchez says. "They expect to be seen, but not that any one person is following them around every day, all day, for a month."

The difference, then, is technology. Assigning a cop to tail every suspected criminal isn't physically possible, but that's no longer a problem with current trackers. "These devices—you put it on a car and leave it alone and check back in a month or two months or a year and have a record of where that person has been," Sanchez says. "Is that something the Fourth Amendment would permit? And you intuitively want to say ‘no.’ "

So which way will the court go on this? Sanchez says it's difficult to say. Most likely, he thinks they'll avoid making a big decision like supporting the use of the mosaic theory in this case, since it opens up a whole bunch of other issues.

Photo by TexasGOPVote.com via Flickr/Creative Commons Attribution Generic 2.0 License

Jackson has made what seems like every attempt to fight against gay marriage in the District; this is the second time that the Court has rejected this kind of effort from him. (You can read up on Jackson on his website, which is largely free from any information regarding his spats with the courts over gay marriage.)

DCist reports that "the Court, who conferenced on the case, Jackson v. the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics, last Friday, did not comment on the decision according to the Associated Press. Jackson had filed the petition last October, a reaction to a February ban by the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics on human rights-related ballot initiatives. That ban, which outlaws any initiative which would violate the District's Human Rights Act, now can claim the support of the Supreme Court."

Some history on the topic, courtesy of a press release from the Human Rights Campaign:

The Supreme Court’s denial of certiorari today leaves standing a D.C. Court of Appeals decision issued last October that determined the Council acted within its authority when more than thirty years ago it established a requirement that proposed ballot initiatives may not authorize, or have the effect of authorizing, discrimination prohibited by the D.C. Human Rights Act.  The Court further held that an initiative on same-sex marriage would impermissibly permit discrimination against gays and lesbians in the District.

In December 2009, the D.C. Council overwhelmingly passed the Religious Freedom and Civil Marriage Equality Act of 2009.  The bill was signed by Mayor Adrian Fenty, transmitted to Congress for review and became law on March 3, 2010. The first marriages between same-sex couples were performed less than a week later. Since then hundreds of same-sex couples have been married in D.C.

The Supreme Court's decision confirms that the District can be squarely pro-marriage for everyone, regardless of sexual orientation. If equal rights in this arena make you queasy, look at it this way: Gay marriage can be an economic booster!

Those steps, just a mere forty four
Ascend to the giant bronze door
But as of today
The Justices say
Ya can't go that way anymore

Some say it's what safety requires
A view that is surely not Breyer's
As laid out by Cass
It lets us all pass
Equality's what it inspires

Somebody posted a notice on Dan Snyder's message board, Extremeskins, alerting fans that a fundraiser will be thrown in Arlington next week to help pay medical bills for Chief Zee (real name Zema Williams).

Time was, such a post in these friendly confines would elicit nothing more controversial than "How much does he need?" But these days, even wins are booed. So the thread immediately disintegrated into an interrogation of the original poster, with some folks wondering why Williams needs another fundraiser—"He can afford season tickets, but not medical bills?" huffed the poster brianm23—and others asking why give money to a guy Chief Zee's age, since he should have all his health care covered by those socialist programs, Medicare and Medicaid.

(AFTER THE JUMP: That blogger called Chief Zee WHAT? Would Justice Scalia cringe at Chief Zee's costume? WJFK's crushing WTEM? It's a good time to unaffiliated with Dan Snyder? The last Guaranteed Win Night of 2009?)

I've met and talked to Chief Zee, and he's a real pleasant, happy old guy. To longtime Skins fans desensitized to the offensiveness of his caricatured costume, Chief Zee is the football fan equivalent of a combat vet: He had his leg broken by Eagles fans in the parking lot of Veterans Stadium after a 1983 Skins/Philly game. Williams described the beating to me a some years ago:

"They treated me like chopped meat," he says. "They ripped off my costume, smashed my eye socket so my eyeball was just hanging out, snapped my leg like it was a twig, and yelled, 'You won't be jumping up and down in this stadium anymore!' They left me lying in my underclothes."

But to pretty much everybody without allegiance to our NFL team, Chief Zee is a feather-and-moccasin-wearing symbol of everything wrong with having a franchise named "Redskins."

As a blogger from stuffblackpeoplehate.com explained last year:

For people who aren’t from the Washington D.C. area, Zema Williams (a.k.a. Chief Zee) is the racist asshole who throws on a warbonnet and beaded warshirt at Washington Redskins games and proceeds to dance around like an unmitigated fucktard. He has become the unofficial de facto mascot of the Redskins, despite the fact that he’s basically Native America’s Al Jolson in blackface.There isn’t enough space on this blog to list everything that’s wrong with what he’s doing, nor is there enough space to explain how offended Native people and I, as a Native person, are offended by this assclown. What possibly sticks in the craw the most is the fact that November 7, 1985 was declared ‘Chief Zee’ day in Washington D.C. – right smack in the middle of American Indian Heritage Month. Fuck you very much whoever’s idea that was.

Now on to the much shorter and more easily explained reason why this, and indeed the very fact that a team called the ‘Redskins‘ is even allowed to exist, bothers me as a black man:

Black people are next.

Perhaps stuffblackpeoplehate.com will present an amicus brief if the Supreme Court hears Harjo v. Pro Football Inc., the lawsuit that challenges the trademark protections enjoyed by Dan Snyder with his Redskins merch.

Or maybe the lead plaintiff in the case against Snyder, Suzan Harjo, should just rent Chief Zee for a day if her case comes up, and just have him walk around the Supreme Court entrance in costume. Even Antonin Scalia would admit have to admit "Redskins" is offensive after a glimpse at Zee's gameday getup.

***

Update on the sportstalk war: DCRTV reports that the Dan Snyder-owned WTEM is getting grounded and pounded by non-Dan Snyder-owned WJFK in the key demographic of 25-54 year old males.

The latest ratings book includes the NFL preseason, which would figure to be the high holy days for Snyder's frequency, what with its total access to the Redskins. But according to a radio industry source, WJFK beat WTEM in every time slot in the Erectile Dysfunction demo they both are going after.

WJFK boss Chris Kinard admits it's a good time to not be affiliated with Dan Snyder.

"Our goal has always been to provide a platform for the fans for whatever they want to get off their chest," says Kinard. "The way things have gone in the last 10 years for the most beloved franchise in Washington, D.C., that frustration was apparent in the stadium last weekend, and that frustration has been apparent on our airwaves."

The WTEM/WJFK feud has already produced off-air entertainment. WJFK brilliantly hired the Redskins cheerleaders to work the press party announcing the station would be flipping to a sports station and challenging WTEM, meaning Snyder's favorite play-toy was used to sell the opposition.

Snyder rebounded from the cheerleader stunt by using backdoor channels to crush WJFK's attempt to open the FanZone, a tailgate friendly parking lot near FedExField that was planned as WJFK's first marketing extravaganza after the flip to sports talk.

Another big chapter in the stations' rivalry will come with the next ratings book, scheduled for release Oct. 8, which will be the first book to include numbers from Tony Kornheiser, who came back to local airwaves after being kicked out of the Monday Night Football booth. If WJFK continues winning that time slot with Mike Wise, it'll be turn out the lights, the party's over for Snyder and Kornheiser as sportstalkers.

***

The Nationals get bombed by Los Angeles, 14-2.  That puts Washington at 51-99.

One tick away from the century mark!

It's been a while since we had an R²D²™ Update! L.A. has now outscored the opposition by a Major League-best 179 runs on the season; Washington has been outscored by a Major League-worst 164 runs.

So, let's take a look at the big board, just returned by Jerry Lewis: The Nats now have a negative-343-run-run-differential-differential with the Dodgers, or an R²D²™ of -343!

Wow! The Nats are to R²D²™ as Hussein Bolt is to the 100 meters, only opposite! Vegas can't be surprised they got blown out by 12 runs last night!

But all bets are off with the squad teetering on still another 100 loss season.

All bets except one, that is! It's time for Cheap Seats Daily's famous Guaranteed Win Night™! That's right, for the last time of 2009, put the mortgage on the Nats to win tonight at Nationals Park!*

And remember, if the bet doesn't come in, the rest of the season is free!

*Don't really put the mortgage on the Nats, dumbass....UNLESS YOU GET PLEASURE OUT OF WINNING LARGE SUMS OF COLD, HARD CASH!

***

Story tips? Wanna Play the Feud? Tube amps for sale? Send to: cheapseats@washingtoncitypaper.com

• Alexandria Police Chief David P. Baker announced his retirement yesterday afternoon, ending a 40-year career in law enforcement.  This comes in the aftermath of his arrest on DUI charges Saturday night, following an accident that sent another driver to the hospital.  The best part about retiring now is that Baker gets to retain his full benefits, regardless of the outcome of today's court hearing in Arlington.

• Sonia Sotomayor is one step closer to joining the Supreme Court.  The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 13-6 to endorse the candidate, sending her nomination to a full Senate vote next week.  She's expected to be confirmed with little struggle, but as usual, party affiliations are limiting unanimous support.
• Bruce Johnson is wondering why so many businesses are leaving Cleveland Park.  If major corporations like Starbucks and McDonalds decide to leave the neighborhood and their space can't be filled for upwards of five years, there just might be a problem.

• Borderstan is busy reporting local crimes, some occurring in broad daylight.  Highlights include a car break-in at 9:30 am and a foiled rooftop burglar on Church Street NW.

• It's no longer news that President Obama and the Democratic leadership are determined to push through their first attempt at health-care reform before the August recess.  When Rep. Frank Kratovil (D-MD) announced to his constituency that he would vote for the health-care bill, they were upset.  So upset, in fact, that they hung him in effigy during a rally in Salisbury.  Perhaps Kratovil should spend the recess in Washington so as to avoid some of these more fanatic citizens.

• The Democrats' honeymoon is over.  After six months of working together in supposed harmony, it's back to name calling and back room deals.  So says Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA), who's blaming the obstruction of the Blue Dogs on Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel.  Apparently he recruited them to run while still serving in Congress and has since failed to get them on board with the President's grand plans for reform.  Politics as usual, it's how the federal government runs.