In a 19-page ruling Tuesday, Judge Amul Thapar of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Kentucky wrote that Robert Lee's constitutional rights were violated when drug enforcement agents illegally tracked his car and then seized 150 pounds of marijuana from it.

Thapar granted Lee's motion to suppress the evidence, noting that it had been obtained purely as the result of a fishing expedition. "In this case, the DEA agents had their fishing poles out to catch Lee.," Thapar wrote. "Admittedly, the agents did not intend to break the law. But they installed a GPS device on Lee's car without a warrant 'in the hope that something might turn up,'" he said.

The earlier this year ruled that law enforcement officials needed search warrants before they could track suspects using GPS devices. The ruling involved someone who was convicted on drug distribution charges based on evidence gathered by police who tracked his movements using an illegally installed GPS tracker.

Despite the Supreme Court ruling, several lower courts have in recent months permitted evidence gathered through warrantless GPS tracking to be used to prosecute individuals.

In the Ninth Circuit, for instance, three district courts have so far this year applied a 'good-faith exemption' to permit evidence from warrantless GPS tracking, Thapar noted. One district court in the Eight Circuit has also done the same.