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

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---
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 (declan () wired com)
   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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