COURT CORRECT TO REGULATE TECHNOLOGY

Decades from now, when advancements in technology will have made it
possible for government snoops to find out the color of your underwear
from a satellite circling the moon, people will be thankful for last
week's U.S. Supreme Court decision in the case of Danny Kyllo.

The court's 5-4 ruling reaffirmed a citizen's basic right to privacy
in his home, even in an age when high-tech devices make it possible
for police on the outside to learn what's going on in the inside. As
Justice Antonin Scalia so aptly put it in writing for the majority,
"The Fourth Amendment draws a firm line at the entrance to the house."

The case concerns the use of a thermal imaging device by federal
officers in Oregon who suspected marijuana was being grown in Danny
Kyllo's home, using special, intense lighting. The government argued,
and four dissenting justices agreed, that no warrant was needed
because the infrared scan merely measured "waste heat" emitted from
the exterior of the home, and that the images obtained were too murky
to reveal "intimate" private information or disclose much about
"private activities" in "private areas" of the house.

Scalia and the court's majority thought otherwise. They saw the
government's argument as a classic slippery slope, on which the Fourth
Amendment's warrant requirement would be eroded over time. Joined by
conservatives and liberals alike, Scalia wrote, "In the home... all
details are intimate details, because the entire area is held safe
from prying government eyes," adding that homeowners should not be "at
the mercy of advanced technology."

The decision serves notice that police must obtain a warrant before
using any device not in general public use to gain details about a
person's private home that could not otherwise be discovered without
physical intrusion. That legal approach could prevent warrantless use
of the Internet wire technology known as Carnivore. Carnivore has the
ability to intercept and access e-mail and other electronic
communications. Through a box that the FBI installs on the Network
Operation Centers of Internet Service Providers, Carnivore can chew
through any message in the ISP's network, but the FBI claims to look
only at messages sent or received from criminal suspects after
obtaining a warrant.

The answer is not to limit technology; the solution is to set limits
on how and when the government can use that technology. Scalia and his
colleagues have protected basic privacy rights against misuse of
technology that not only wasn't imagined by the Founders, but which
may not be envisioned by Americans living today.