THE NEW MCCARTHYISM: HOW THE MASSACHUSETTS SUPREME JUDICIAL COURT GOT AUTOMATED LICENSE PLATE READERS AND THE MOSAIC THEORY ALL WRONG.

Many scholars have explored the intersection of 21st-century technologies with Fourth Amendment jurisprudence. Some have approached this as digital-age versions of papers, effects, and the curtilage, while others have addressed the third-party Miller doctrine. One theory gaining support, based partly on the concurring Supreme Court opinions of United States v. Jones, is the Mosaic Theory, which argues that data collection that is constitutional in isolation can aggregate to create an unconstitutional intrusion. One underexplored area is its intersection with automated license plate readers (ALPRs). Multiple authors have argued for the Mosaic Theory's application to limit or ban ALPRs, and in 2020, Massachusetts' highest court held that the Fourth Amendment could be violated by less than a year's use of ALPRs. This Note criticizes that ruling and fills the gap in the literature by examining how the Mosaic Theory, despite sounding promising on paper, would be unworkable in practice regarding ALPRs and unlikely to be approved by the Supreme Court. This Note instead proposes alternatives to limit the growing reach of ALPRs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]