Surveillance cameras are great crime fighting tools. They also allow police to spy on law abiding citizens, especially as facial recognition tools continue on their road to perfection. It won’t be long until a network of government cameras can track and record all the comings and goings of every citizen of the United States. Technically, it is feasible. What remains to be seen is whether it is politically feasible in a country that has been historically devoted to individual freedom and limited government.
A recent action by the United States Supreme Court underscores the hesitancy of the courts to get involved. The Supreme Court created a “right to privacy” out of whole cloth to protect abortions. Will they then use this “right of privacy” to restrict government surveillance?
The Fourth Amendment of the U. S. Constitution states: “The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.”
If a government super high resolution rotating camera mounted on a utility pole outside your home peers through your windows and observes your actions within your house is that a Fourth Amendment violation?
In refusing to hear an appeal in Travis Tuggle v. U.S., the Supreme Court left in place a lower court ruling which concluded that no “search” in violation of the Fourth Amendment had occurred because the private activity recorded by the hidden surveillance cameras took place in public view. The Rutherford Institute and the Cato Institute had filed an amicus brief in Tuggle warning that without adequate safeguards in place, there would be no turning back from the kinds of intrusions posed by such expansive, ever-watching surveillance technology capable of revealing intimate details of a person’s life.
In the Tuggle case, the government cameras caught a meth dealer. That’s good. But do the means justify the ends? This is an issue the American people will have to decide in a future that may already be here.
