Megan Brown Discusses Unanimous Supreme Court Religious Liberties and GPS Tracking Decisions

In a radio interview airing on CNN affiliate WEBY in Florida, Megan L. Brown, analyzed recent developments at the Supreme Court, including the unanimous decisions in Hosanna-Tabor Lutheran Church and School v. U.S. EEOC, No. 10-553, and United States v. Jones, No. 10-1259.  In Hosanna-Tabor, the most important religious liberties case to reach the Court in decades, the Court uniformly rejected the Obama Administration's "remarkable" limited view of religious organizations' First Amendment right to internal self-governance.  This decision promises to be fodder for future disputes over the rights of religious organizations to resist federal and state statutory intrusions into their affairs.  Ms. Brown filed an amicus brief in the case, which was recognized as the "Brief of the Week" by The National Law Journal. 

In Jones, a closely watched case involving privacy and technology, the Court unanimously concluded that police had violated the Fourth Amendment when officers placed a GPS tracking device on a suspect's car and used it to track his movements for 28 days. This decision, and in particular the concurrence by Justice Alito, illustrates the difficulty courts sometimes have in applying existing law to evolving technology. 

Though very different in subject matter, both cases shed light on the current Supreme Court's approach to fundamental issues that will certainly be subject to future litigation. 

Ms. Brown handles Appellate and Litigation matters at Wiley Rein, and regularly practices before Courts of Appeal and the Supreme Court.