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Kyllo v. U.S.
Author:- Libby
STATEMENT O THE CASE: Petitioner was indicted of manufacturing marijuana after police discovered an indoor growing operation using a thermal-imaging device from the street.
PROCEDURE BELOW: The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of petitioner's motion to suppress. Petition for writ of certiorari was granted to determine whether the thermal-imaging was a search under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Const.
STATEMENT OF FACTS: Suspicious that marijuana was being grown in petitioner Kyllo's home in a triplex, agents used a thermal imaging device to scan the triplex to determine if the amount of heat emanating from it was consistent with the high-intensity lamps typically used for indoor marijuana growth. The scan showed that Kyllo's garage roof and a side wall were relatively hot compared to the rest of his home and substantially warmer than the neighboring units. Based in part on the thermal imaging, a Federal Magistrate Judge issued a warrant to search Kyllo's home, where the agents found marijuana growing. The lower court held that petitioner had shown no subjective expectation of privacy as he had made no attempt to conceal the heat escaping from his home and even if he had, there was no objectively reasonable expectation of privacy because the imager did not expose any intimate details of petitioner's life.
LEGAL ISSUES: Whether the thermal-imaging aimed at a private home from a public street, constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Const.
HOLDING: When the Government uses a device that is not in general public use, to explore details of a private home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a Fourth Amendment "search," and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant.
REASONING: Where, as here, the Government uses a device that is not in general public use, to explore details of a private home that would previously have been unknowable without physical intrusion, the surveillance is a Fourth Amendment "search," and is presumptively unreasonable without a warrant.