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VT: Helicopter surveillance of a marijuana patch as low as 100' violated state constitution

By John Wesley Hall, Jr.

A helicopter did a flyover of appellant's marijuana patch, sometimes as low as 100', in violation of FAA rules. This violated the Vermont constitution's hightened protection in property. State v. Bryant, 2008 VT 39, 2008 Vt. LEXIS 38 (March 28, 2008): [*P23] Since the rulings in Dow Chemical, Ciraolo and Riley, and despite the fact that all the Riley opinions engaged in a multi-factored analysis, some state courts have relied solely on the legality of a helicopter's position in public airspace to determine whether the aerial surveillance at issue was a search. See, e.g., State v. Ainsworth, 310 Ore. 613, 801 P.2d 749, 750-52 (Or. 1990) (upholding surveillance from helicopter solely on basis of lawfulness of officer's vantage point, where testimony as to altitude ranged from fifteen feet above the tree line to "pretty close to four or five hundred feet")...continue to full post

Full post as published by Fourth Amendment on April 01, 2008 (boomark / email).