This week Santa Cruz County Superior Court is moving forward with the unnecessary trial of six people accused of illegally camping outside government buildings in the summer of 2010. The county’s consideration of their demonstration as breaking state lodging laws is missing the point: people in the United States have the right to assemble.

The Seventh Circuit of the U.S. Court of Appeals recently upheld the case of U.S. v. Juan Cuevas-Perez, which makes it legal for police to GPS track your car without a warrant for days, or weeks at a time.

Courts are now taking on more cases involving privacy with the emergence of new technology and its prominence in the public sphere. The California Supreme Court ruled this month that cell phones could be searched without warrant, which has some Santa Cruzians worried about privacy rights.