California v. Ciraolo

California v. Ciraolo
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 10, 1985 Decided May 19, 1986
Full case name	California v. Ciraolo
Citations	476 U.S. 207 (more) 476 U.S. 207
Prior history	Pled guilty in trial court; reversed by California Court of Appeal
Holding
The Fourth Amendment was not violated by the naked-eye aerial observation of respondent's backyard.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan, Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell, Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	Burger, joined by White, Rehnquist, Stevens, O'Connor
Dissent	Powell, joined by Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun
Laws applied
U.S. Const., amend. IV

California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207 (1986), was a case decided by the United States Supreme Court, in which it ruled that warrantless aerial observation of a person's backyard did not violate the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Background

Dante Carlo Ciraolo grew marijuana plants in his backyard, shielded from view by two fences. After receiving an anonymous tip, the Santa Clara police sent officers in a private airplane to fly over and photograph his house at an altitude of 1,000 feet. Based on an officer's naked eye observation, a search warrant was granted. After the trial court rejected Ciraolo's motion to suppress the evidence (under the exclusionary rule), he pleaded guilty. The California Court of Appeal reversed the decision, holding that the aerial observation violated the curtilage of his home and therefore the Fourth Amendment.

The Court's Decision

Chief Justice Warren Burger wrote for the 5-4 majority, referring to Katz v. United States. He concluded, "The Fourth Amendment simply does not require the police traveling in the public airways at this altitude to obtain a warrant in order to observe what is visible to the naked eye."

Dissent

Justice Powell wrote for the dissent. Also citing Katz, he argued that the decision ignored that case's two-part test.

He highlighted that Ciraolo did have a reasonable expectation of privacy as "the actual risk to privacy from commercial or pleasure aircraft is virtually nonexistent. Travelers on commercial flights, as well as private planes used for business or personal reason, normally obtain at most a fleeting, anonymous, and nondiscriminating glimpse of the landscape and buildings over which they pass. The risk that a passenger on such a plane might observe private activities, and might connect those activities with particular people, is simply too trivial to protect against."

See also

• List of United States Supreme Court cases, volume 476
• List of United States Supreme Court cases
• Lists of United States Supreme Court cases by volume
• List of United States Supreme Court cases by the Rehnquist Court

External links

• Text of California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207 (1986) is available from:  Findlaw  Justia  resource.org  OpenJurist