Georgia Court blocks lifelong GPS tracking of sex offenders

ATLANTA (AP) Georgia's highest court says it's unconstitutional to require "sexually dangerous predators'' to remain on electronic GPS monitoring after completing their sentences.

The unanimous Georgia Supreme Court opinion published Monday says that violates the Fourth Amendment protection against "unreasonable searches and seizures.''

The opinion says the law amounts to warrantless searches to find evidence of possible criminal behavior after people have completed their sentences and regained their privacy rights, which is ``patently unreasonable.''

The opinion notes that other states have passed constitutional lifelong GPS monitoring requirements. For example, there are laws that include monitoring as part of the actual sentence.

The opinion says state lawmakers could require courts in the worst cases to require GPS monitoring as a condition when a sexual offender serves part of a life sentence on probation.