T
The420Guy
Guest
Washington, DC: Police must procure a warrant before they can legally use
thermal imaging devices or other new technologies to detect activities
taking place inside the home, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday.
Thermal imagers measure heat emanating from a house and are frequently
used by law enforcement to identify indoor marijuana cultivation.
"We think that obtaining by sense-enhancing technology any information
regarding the interior of the home that could not otherwise have been
obtained without physical intrusion into a constitutionally protected
area constitutes a search -- at least where the technology in question is
not in general public use," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the Court.
The decision overturns a Ninth Circuit ruling that found the warrantless
use of thermal imaging did not constitute a search because "intimate
details" were not revealed.
"The Fourth Amendment's protection of the home has never been tied to
measurement of the quality or quantity of information obtained," the high
court rebuked. "In the home, ... all details are intimate details,
because the entire area is held safe from prying government eyes."
The defendant in the case, Danny Kyllo of Oregon, was charged with
marijuana cultivation in 1992 after federal agents used thermal imaging
to scan the amount of heat emanating from his home.
For more information, please contact Donna Shea, Esq., NORML Foundation
Litigation Director, at (202) 483-8751.
thermal imaging devices or other new technologies to detect activities
taking place inside the home, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled 5-4 Monday.
Thermal imagers measure heat emanating from a house and are frequently
used by law enforcement to identify indoor marijuana cultivation.
"We think that obtaining by sense-enhancing technology any information
regarding the interior of the home that could not otherwise have been
obtained without physical intrusion into a constitutionally protected
area constitutes a search -- at least where the technology in question is
not in general public use," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the Court.
The decision overturns a Ninth Circuit ruling that found the warrantless
use of thermal imaging did not constitute a search because "intimate
details" were not revealed.
"The Fourth Amendment's protection of the home has never been tied to
measurement of the quality or quantity of information obtained," the high
court rebuked. "In the home, ... all details are intimate details,
because the entire area is held safe from prying government eyes."
The defendant in the case, Danny Kyllo of Oregon, was charged with
marijuana cultivation in 1992 after federal agents used thermal imaging
to scan the amount of heat emanating from his home.
For more information, please contact Donna Shea, Esq., NORML Foundation
Litigation Director, at (202) 483-8751.