Fouth Amendment Violations
Everyone knows that the police and the war on drugs is a complex situation
, with many unique factors coming into play. No matter how bad the situation may seem, Americans still have certain rights that have been passed down through the US Constitution. Unfortunately,recent developments may have made some changes to these basic rights and privilegesmanyAmericans hold sodear.
The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed a decision of a lower court giving the green light to the police to sneak into a man's yard at night and plant a GPS device on his car parked in his own driveway. From the dissenting voice of Judge Kozinski regarding State v. ______
"Having previously decimated the protections the Fourth Amendment accords to the home itself, United States v.Lemus, 596 F.3d 512 (9th Cir. 2010) (Kozinski, C.J., dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc); United States v.Black, 482 F.3d 1044 (9th Cir. 2007) (Kozinski, J., dissenting from the denial of rehearing en banc), our court now proceeds to dismantle the zone of privacy we enjoy in the home's curtilage and in public. The needs of law enforcement, to which my colleagues seem inclined to refuse nothing, are quickly making personal privacy a distant memory. 1984 may have come a bit later than predicted, but it's here at last. Judge Kozinski's dissenting opinion. (Read opinion here)
The heart of the issue is not the tracking of the car by the government via satellite. (Although most citizens will likely find this scenario rather unsettling). Rather, the true concern is how the gps device got on the car. The Appellate Court's affirmation of the lower court's decision finding this reasonable represents a curtailment of a citizen's right to be free from governmental intrusion absent a warrant in his own home and curtilage. A citizen enjoys the greatest privacy in his own home. A man's home is his castle, after all. The court has concluded time and again that a man's home not only encompasses the physical structure or building, but also that structure's curtilage. That is, the fourth amendment protection applies to the home itself, as well as the areas around the home so closely associated with it, that is considered part of the home itself. This includes the garage, the backyard, the shed in the backyard, the front lawn and the driveway.
Now sometimes, what is curtilage has been a difficult question to answer. The sidewalk in front of the home? The yard between the sidewalk and the home? Regardless, through the years the driveway has indeed been considered a part of the home's curtilage. That would normally mean you have the same right to privacy in your driveway as you do in your backyard.
Which brings us to the stunning part of the 9th Circuit's decision not to rehear the case: They seem to be not contesting that the driveway in question is part of the defendant's curtilage. Rather, they are just deciding that, in his case, the fourth amendment rule regarding privacy does not apply. They thus seem to be finding an exception to the US Supreme Courts home + curtilage rule.
And the reason for this?
Well, according to Judge Kozinski's dissent, it is the lack of security gates, or fences, or guards around the yard and the driveway that lead the other Judges to conclude that the defendant did not have an expectation of privacy in his yard. In other words, the sort of things that affluent people tend to have in front of their yards.
Citizens without the proper means to afford the fence, security gate, or guardhouses of their more affluent neighbors may be dismayed to discover that, at least in the 9th Circuit, they have less privacy rights in their yards and driveways than their more upscale neighbors.
Fouth Amendment Violations
By: Denmon & Denmon Trial Lawyers
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