Aerial Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment – California v. Ciraolo

Abstract

Law enforcement officials have increasingly turned to aerial surveillance as a means of combating crime. Aerial surveillance often enables police to view areas that they otherwise would be unable to view without a warrant. Consequently, considerable conflict has developed over whether this means of surveillance constitutes a search under the fourth amendment. In California v. Ciraolo, the United States Supreme Court held that naked-eye aerial observations of the curtilage of a home, when made from navigable airspace, do not constitute a search protected by the fourth amendment.