California v. Ciraolo 1986

• Author: Daniel Brannen, Richard Hanes, Elizabeth Shaw
• Pages: 476-479

Contenidos

• Flying Low.
• High Court Rules.
• Low Down Dirty Shame.
• Suggestions for further reading.

Page 476

Petitioner: State of California

Respondent: Dante Carlo Ciraolo

Petitioner's Claim: That the police did not violate the Fourth Amendment by searching Ciraolo's backyard from an airplane without a warrant.

Chief Lawyer for Petitioner: Laurence K. Sullivan, Deputy Attorney General of California

Chief Lawyer for Respondent: Marshall Warren Krause

Justices for the Court: Warren E. Burger, Sandra Day O'Connor, William H. Rehnquist, John Paul Stevens, Byron R. White

Justices Dissenting: Harry A. Blackmun, William J. Brennan, Jr., Thurgood Marshall, Lewis F. Powell, Jr.

Date of Decision: May 19, 1986

Decision: The Supreme Court said the search did not violate the Fourth Amendment.

Significance: With Ciraolo, the Supreme Court said people in enclosed yards cannot expect privacy from air traffic above.

A person's right to privacy is guaranteed under the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Fourth Amendment requires any searches and seizures by the government to be reasonable. In most cases, law enforcement

Page 477

officers must get a warrant to search a house or other private place for evidence of a crime. To get a warrant, officers must have probable cause, or believe the place to be searched has evidence of a crime.

In Oliver v. United States (1984), the Supreme Court said people can expect privacy not just inside their houses, but in the curtilage too. The curtilage is the yard that a person encloses or considers to be private. Because the curtilage is private, law enforcement officers usually must have a warrant and probable cause to search it. In California v. Ciraolo, the U.S. Supreme Court had to decide whether the police violated the Fourth Amendment by searching a backyard from an airplane without a warrant.

Flying Low

Dante Carlo Ciraolo lived in Santa Clara, California. On September 2, 1982, Santa Clara police received an anonymous tip that Ciraolo was growing marijuana in his backyard. The police could not see the backyard from the ground because Ciraolo enclosed it with a six-foot outer fence and a ten-foot inner fence. Later that day, Officer Shutz hired a private plane to fly him and Officer Rodriguez over Ciraolo's backyard at an altitude of 1,000 feet.

Shutz and Rodriguez both were trained in marijuana identification. From the airplane they saw marijuana plants growing eight- to ten-feet high in a...