COURT WISE TO BACK RIGHT TO PRIVACY

It's not every day the U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of a marijuana
grower. But when the overriding question involves a person's right to
privacy, the majority of justices felt they had no choice. And they were right.

The case involved an Oregon man who was growing marijuana in his home until
police nabbed him doing so by using a sophisticated thermal imager. They
used the imager to take temperature readings of Danny Kyllo's home. They
discovered part of it was unusually hot and deduced he was using lamps to
provide marijuana plants with enough heat and light to grow indoors.

Only then did police obtain a search warrant, confiscate the marijuana
plants and arrest Kyllo. The matter got all the way to the Supreme Court,
where five justices recently ruled the police violated Kyllo's Fourth
Amendment rights against unreasonable searches.

The ruling is far greater than the impact it will have on the Kyllo case.
Technology is changing and improving so fast, a person's right to privacy
can quickly be eroded. Now, it may be with thermal imagers, but in time it
could with advance image technology that gives law enforcement the power to
determine a whole lot more than just the temperature inside someone's house.

Before the government essentially begins peeking into people's homes, it
ought to get a proper search warrant.