On May 10, the Alliance joined a brief, filed in the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit, where the issue is whether long-term pole camera surveillance constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. In United States v. Hay, federal agents installed a surveillance camera on a pole across the street from Bruce Hay’s home as part of a disability-fraud investigation and monitored his home for 68 days. Hay claimed the surveillance violated the Fourth Amendment and moved to suppress evidence obtained through the pole surveillance. The brief, filed by RCFP, argues that not only does the Fourth Amendment require a warrant before engaging in such targeted and persistent surveillance that would chill First Amendment rights, but that the surveillance also threatens reporter-source confidentiality and, thereby, important First Amendment freedoms. Read more.
Charlotte McBirney is Senior Counsel and Director, Public Policy for the News/Media Alliance.
