Miroyan v. United States

Background

Two men rented a small airplane to fly into Mexico and back carrying several hundred pounds of marijuana. Before the rental began, federal agents, with the aircraft owner’s permission and a magistrate’s order, attached an electronic tracking “beeper” to the plane. Using the beeper and visual sightings, agents followed the flight, arrested one man during an offload of marijuana and the other at a motel, and the men were convicted at separate trials of drug importation and distribution offenses.

Reasoning

The legal question was whether installing and monitoring the beeper amounted to a search that would require strict constitutional protection. The Ninth Circuit said no: it treated beeper monitoring like ordinary public surveillance of an aircraft in public airspace and relied on the owner’s consent to install the device. Justice Rehnquist, acting as circuit justice, denied the defendants’ request to stay the appeals court’s mandate because he believed the Supreme Court was unlikely to take the case now. He noted different approaches among the federal appeals courts and said the record did not clearly show whether there was probable cause to justify the installation.

Real world impact

Because the Justice denied the stay, the convictions and sentences remain in effect while any petition for Supreme Court review proceeds. The decision leaves unresolved for now whether the Government needs a warrant or probable cause to install tracking devices, especially when the owner consents. If the Supreme Court later takes the issue, this case's record may be reviewed or sent back to lower courts to decide probable cause before any change to the convictions occurs.