Current Laws May Offer Little Shield Against Drones, Senators Are Told

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/21/us/politics/senate-panel-weighs-privacy-concerns-over-use-of-drones.html?ref=todayspaper&_r=0

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: barry levine 
Date: Thu, Mar 21, 2013 at 10:08 AM
Subject: re: Current Laws May Offer Little Shield Against Drones, Senators Are Told
To: letters@nytimes.com


To the Editor:

    The exact definition of "unreasonable search" will occupy our Supreme Court for the foreseeable future. As technology advances, so must we get more sophisticated in setting borders. To the authors of our Fourth Amendment, what was visible to a passerby in the street was a public matter, but what happened behind a wall or drawn curtains enjoyed the presumption of privacy. One who climbed my garden wall to peer in was invading my privacy. But what of the drone that was passing by on an unrelated investigation? Even if that investigation was under court warrant, does what the drone sees in my backyard in passing enjoy the presumption of privacy? Or could the drone's video feed constitute probable cause for a new warrant to search my premises? Current jurisprudence is silent.

    The future is with us, day by day. We cannot hold it back. But we must enact laws that preserve our constitutional rights in a changing technological era.

Barry Haskell Levine