Is a Thermal Imaging search needful of a warrant?

[George at Orwellian.Org]

The U.S. Supreme Court will be deciding soon.

Previously:

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Is it okay for the government to look at your property while walking by and
if the officer spots marijuana plants growing to get a search warrant?

Of course it is.

*   "The Right To Privacy", ISBN 0-679-74434-7, 1997
*   By Attorneys Ellen Alderman and [The] Caroline Kennedy
*
*   ...then the Supreme Court ruled that if the yard was big enough that "An
*   individual may not legitimately demand privacy for activities conducted
*   out of doors in fields," the Court wrote, "except in the area immediately
*   surrounding the home."
*
*   ...then the Supreme Court ruled that a barn sixty yards from a farmhouse
*   was too far away from a house to expect privacy.
*
*   ...then the Supreme Court ruled that aerial surveillance did not constitute
*   a Fourth Amendment search.
*
*   ...then the Supreme Court ruled that a "precision aerial mapping camera"
*   that was able to capture objects as small as one-half inch in diameter did
*   not constitute a Fourth Amendment search.

...then courts ruled that infrared surveillance of homes was permissible.

What is this?

*   Subject:      Re: Law Enforcement Aviation
*   From:         aufsj at imap2.asu.edu
*   Date:         1996/12/27
*   Newsgroups:   rec.aviation.military
*
*   What interests me is how new technologies will be interpreted. I recently
*   inquired at the local Law School about the courts views towards the use
*   of impulse radar, and they said "Impulse what the heck?"
*
*   Basically it is a radar that "sees through" things (like, say, your
*   house).
*
*   Their capabilities vary widely, but the feds are already using
*   them and I know that Hughes corp. is designing a low-cost set up
*   specifically for major police departments.
*
*   They are driving towards a unit that can be mounted on a police helicopter.
*
*   Will the police need a warrant? Who knows. Since they are allowed
*   to do airborne infra-red analysis of your house, why not an take an
*   airborne "x-ray" equivalent?
*
*   ---------------------------------------------------------------------
*   Steven J Forsberg   at  aufsj at imap2.asu.edu              Wizard 87-01

MSNBC showed a police car mounted device that scans through
our clothes [for gun metal] as they drive around.

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Here's the URL to the current story, which
made it onto Rather Evening News this evening.

http://cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,272897-412,00.shtml