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

---
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_at_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."
    [...]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------