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Federal Judge Approves Warrantless, Covert Video Surveillance
Penurious Penguin writes "Your curtilage may be your castle, but 'open fields' are open game for law-enforcement and surveillance technology. Whether 'No Trespassing' signs are present or not, your private property is public for the law, with or without a warrant. What the police cannot do, their cameras can — without warrant or court oversight. An article at CNET recounts a case involving the DEA, a federal judge, and two defendants (since charged) who were subjected to video surveillance on private property without a warrant. Presumably, the 4th Amendment suffers an obscure form of agoraphobia further elucidated in the article."
rules and laws are for regular people.
don't you know the drill by now?
cops get away with murder.
literally.
and judges are fine with that. almost always. its the 'brotherhood of crime fighters' that keeps them all in alignment.
they have lost their souls and simply keep their brotherhood going.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
As the article explains: open fields, even when attached to homes, aren't normally covered by the 4th Amendment, because they're not in the plain-terms of the language. The 4th Amendment doesn't protect all property, but rather just the enumerated properties and spaces. Curtilage - the land immediately attached to a home - is sometimes covered, but separate fields such as these aren't.
This judge was appointed by Bush, but sure, whatever you say.
They want the filming of the police openly with your phone to be illegal, but placing hidden cameras on private property to film civilians to be legal? Oh what a brave new world it is in this year of 1984.
Its ok guys just re-elect Obama 2012.
Yep because this went up to Obama's desk and he looked at it and he said, "Yes, okay do this." and then he signed off on this. And now I'm to believe that Romney will not do this ...
Pfft. Obama. Romney. Pfft.
The difference is with Obama it's the government/public agencies doing this, while under Romney it'll be private sector doing it and billing anyone who wants to know what they saw.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
The difference is with Obama it's the government/public agencies doing this, while under Romney it'll be private sector doing it and billing anyone who wants to know what they saw.
Well, there goes that "difference". You apparently haven't seen Obama's latest Executive Order.
Remember, folks, it's a "public-private partnership"; we don't call it fascism anymore!
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Read a bit of the SCOTUS decision on Oliver v. United States (1984) and tell me how this breaks new ground. I was getting my dander up, too, and then I realized this kind of thing was decided 28 years ago. If you want the cops to get a warrant, grow your MJ indoors or in the "curtilage" behind a tall fence (and hope they're not using aircraft).
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
False equivalency. The Obama / Holder justice department has cracked down on pot 4 times as hard as Bush ever did, even conducting twice as many raids on medical marijuana facilities in 4 years than Bush did in 8. And this from the President that promised (as a candidate) to leave them alone.
"Somebody has to do something. It's just incredibly pathetic it has to be us."
--- Jerry Garcia
Wi-fi signal detector - $200
Scanning your property once a week for signals - 1 Hour
Finding a warrantless wi-fi camera and placing it in front of a continuous loop of hardcore German scat porn. - Priceless
Some things money can't buy. For everything else, there is the smug satisfaction of sticking it to the cops.
sudo make me a sandwich
I don't really see any mention of land/fields in that description at all. What part of "persons, houses, papers and effects" leads you to think that it's talking about land?
Your suggestion that privately-owned land "is now public" is a bit ridiculous. This isn't about opening up your property to the public, it's about protecting open fields from searches without a warrant. You still own the land and you can still prosecute people that trespass on it (qualified immunity notwithstanding).
Please keep in mind that this judge isn't the one ruling that fields are exempt from 4th Amendment protection. This was settled nearly a hundred years ago, but was the legal standard long before that:
HESTER v. U S, 265 U.S. 57 (1924)
The only shadow of a ground for bringing up the case is drawn from the hypothesis that the examination of the vessels took place upon Hester's father's land. As to that, it is enough to say that, apart from the justification, the special protection accorded by the Fourth Amendment to the people in their 'persons, houses, papers and effects,' is not extended to the open fields. The distinction between the latter and the house is as old as the common law. 4 Bl. Comm. 223, 225, 226.
The judge here is just applying that precedent to this case, and if you accept the precedent, it seems entirely appropriate and reasonable that it be applied this way here. If you don't like the outcome, don't piss on the judge for being reasonable. Talk to your legislature and get them to change the law.
U.S. district judge sided with the Justice Department to rule that it was reasonable for DEA agents to enter a property without permission or a warrant to install multiple “covert digital surveillance cameras.”
The Justice department...
The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated by the President and confirmed by the Senate and is a member of the Cabinet. The current Attorney General is Eric Holder.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Justice There would be no case here if the Obama administration had not brought one. Not defending republicans here, they are just as bad as democrats. But seriously, stop defending them like they were a friend of the people.