Scalia and the Supremes should revisit the privacy issue in light of the great proximity of persons and technological advances. Is our home restricted to the structure we sleep in or is it the whole of our property?
Look
here:
"CNET has learned that U.S. District Judge William Griesbach ruled that it was reasonable for Drug Enforcement Administration agents to enter rural property without permission -- and without a warrant -- to install multiple "covert digital surveillance cameras" in hopes of uncovering evidence that 30 to 40 marijuana plants were being grown.
"Placing a video camera in a location that allows law enforcement to record activities outside of a home
and beyond protected curtilage does not violate the Fourth Amendment," Justice Department prosecutors James Santelle and William Lipscomb told Callahan.
As digital sensors become cheaper and wireless connections become more powerful, the Justice Department's argument would allow police to install cameras on private property without court oversight -- subject only to budgetary limits and political pressure."
*Ahem*. According to
http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/curtilage"Curtilage includes the area immediately surrounding a dwelling, and it counts as part of the home for many legal purposes, including searches and many self-defense laws. When considering whether something is in a dwelling's curtilage, courts consider four factors:
The proximity of the thing to the dwelling;
Whether the thing is within an enclosure surrounding the home;
Wha the thing is used for.
What steps, if any, the resident took to protect the thing from observation/ access by people passing by.
The Supreme Court suggested these factors in the context of determining whether or not a barn was part of a house's curtilage. See United States v. Dunn (1987), 480 U.S. 294.
In the context of criminal procedure, courts generally call any part of the property surrounding a dwelling that is not part of the curtilage an 'open field.' "
To recap: Your house and anything else within a close-by surrounding "enclosure" on your twenty acres is protected under the Fourth; your barn, two acres away, and its open area are not.
Property lines be damned.
