United States v. Jerry Ford

BIRCH, Circuit Judge:

In this appeal, we decide for the first time in this circuit whether surveillance of a mobile home using a thermal imager constitutes a search under the Fourth Amendment. Because appellant exhibited neither a subjective nor an objective expectation of privacy in heat vented from his mobile home, we find that the thermal imagery did not constitute an impermissible search. We AFFIRM.

I. FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

In May, 1991, agents of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE) used a thermal imager to scan a mobile home in Venus, Florida. Appellant Jerry Lee…