Dow Chemical Co. v. U.S.

Citation
Dow Chemical Co. v. United States, 476 U.S. 227 (1986) (full-text).

Factual Background
The Environmental Protection Agency employed a commercial aerial photographer to use a precision aerial mapping camera to take photographs of a chemical plant.

U.S. Supreme Court
Dow Chemical claimed that the EPA's conduct violated Dow's Fourth Amendment rights.

The Supreme Court found no violation, in part because the camera the EPA used was a "conventional, albeit precise, commercial camera commonly used in mapmaking," and "the photographs here are not so revealing of intimate details as to raise constitutional concerns." However, the Court suggested that the use of more sophisticated, intrusive surveillance might justify a different result. It wrote, "surveillance of private property by using highly sophisticated surveillance equipment not generally available to the public, such as satellite technology, might be constitutionally proscribed absent a warrant."