FC: Supreme Court says cops can't scan homes without warrants

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Tue Jun 12 2001 - 06:20:04 PDT

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    ---
    Opinion:
    http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/99-8508.ZS.html
    ---
    
    http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,44444,00.html
    
        Can't Scan Without a Warrant
        By Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
        2:00 a.m. June 12, 2001 PDT
    
        WASHINGTON -- If the feds want to spy on your home using whizzy tech
        gadgets, they'd better get a warrant first, the Supreme Court said on
        Monday.
    
        In an important 5-4 ruling that extends privacy's shield to radiation
        not visible to the human eye, the court said federal agents should
        have obtained a warrant before using an infrared imaging device to
        snoop on Danny Lee Kyllo, an Oregon man they later arrested for
        growing marijuana.
    
        The decision, written by conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, said
        even though the law has long allowed police to peer at homes through
        their naked eyes, enhanced cameras and similar devices in law
        enforcement hands "would leave the homeowner at the mercy of advancing
        technology -- including imaging technology that could discern all
        human activity in the home."
    
        This ruling seems likely to affect how federal and state police may
        use their rapidly-growing arsenal of advanced surveillance tools. In
        the Kyllo case, agents used an Agema 210 unit to detect unusual heat
        emissions from the halide lamps used to grow marijuana.
    
        Since the Interior Department's unlawful surveillance of Kyllo in
        January 1992, infrared and other forms of electronic monitoring
        devices have become far more invasive, and the Justice Department has
        spent millions of dollars in research on X-ray devices that can see
        through even brick and concrete walls.
    
        "Certainly optical performance has improved. And over the years
        thermal sensitivity has grown a lot greater," said Doug Little,
        spokesman for FLIR Systems of Portland, Oregon, which bought Agema in
        1998. "Cameras are a lot more accurate now."
    
        [...]
    
    
    
    
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