Braam v. Carr (7th Cir. 2022)

Braam v. Carr, No. 20-1059 (7th Cir. 2022)

Nature of Case: In this purported class action a group of individuals, who have each been convicted of multiple sex offenses involving children, asserted a Fourth Amendment challenge to a Wisconsin statute that required them to wear GPS tracking devices for life, even after they had completed post-confinement supervision.

The plaintiffs filed suit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 alleging that the lifetime monitoring requirement violates their rights under the Fourth Amendment. With their complaint, they submitted a motion for a preliminary injunction.

The district court denied the plaintiffs’ motion ruling that in light of Belleau v. Wall, 811 F.3d 929 (7th Cir. 2016), the plaintiffs could not show a likelihood of success on the merits of their claim. Plaintiffs appealed.

Holding: The Seventh Circuit affirmed the district court’s denial of plaintiff’s motion for a preliminary injunction, stating that, although lifetime GPS monitoring is considered a search under Grady v. North Carolina, 575 U.S. 306 (2015), under the totality of the circumstances, balancing balancing the individual privacy interests and legitimate state interests, lifetime GPS monitoring is not an unreasonable search.