Court Opinion

ID: 9474330
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-05 04:54:19.171035+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:44:01.468213
License: Public Domain

SIMPSON, Circuit Judge,
dissenting:
I cannot agree with the majority.
It is hard to visualize circumstances falling more clearly within the “reasonable expectation of privacy” standards of Katz v. United States, 389 U.S. 347, 88 S.Ct. 507, 19 L.Ed.2d 576 (1967), than those presented by this appeal.
The three months long nightly observation of Dr. Walker Whaley’s home was a continuous warrantless search, violative of the Fourth Amendment.
The Whaley residence was located in a secluded area and its basement was impossible to see into from any place where strangers could be expected to be. In order to conduct their surveillance the government agents entered adjoining property and descended a wooded canal bank to a spot at the edge of a private canal. They were able from there, aided by the use of binoculars 1 to look into the Whaley basement windows which were not curtained.
The view obtained was poles apart from a constitutional plain view and not preclu-sive of a reasonable expectation of privacy.
I respectfully dissent.

. The agents’ testimony that they could see what went on without binoculars but chose to use them simply to observe details, sounds contrived and is unconvincing. The fact remains that binoculars were used nearly continuously.