From: Mike Lorrey (mlorrey@datamann.com)
Date: Tue Jun 12 2001 - 14:13:58 MDT
I'm surprised nobody has commented yet on the ruling just issued from
the Supreme Court, where a gentleman growning pot in his attic was
busted based on evidence from an infrared camera that viewed the heat of
the grow lamps through the walls of his house. The SCOTUS ruled that
this is an intrusion into the privacy of the home, and set a standard
that use of high tech equipment to enable police to view people's
private property to a greater degree than by normal unaided human
observation requires a search warrant. They stated that the degree of
privacy an individual has cannot be determined by the present state of
technology, that privacy rights have an absolute standard boundary that
is irrespective of changes in our society like technology. Note that
this heavily smacks of a natural rights argument.
This is a great day for privacy advocates, and the alliance of 6
conservative and liberal judges in this ruling indicates that
libertarian issues like this are gaining a serious audience in the
court.
NOTE: Spike is hereby warned to keep his flying snooper microbots out of
my airspace! ;-)
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