Antonin Scalia was an associate justice of the U.S. Supreme Court from 1986 until his death in 2016. He previously served on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and taught law.
DI has documented statements by Antonin Scalia on Criminal Justice Policy, Law Enforcement, and Privacy. Read the quotations, original sources and related cases below.
Role at the time: Associate justice writing the Supreme Court's majority opinion
Condemned
Statement summary
The majority opinion holds that this use of thermal imaging was a search, presumptively unreasonable without a warrant.
“Since we hold the Thermovision imaging to have been an unlawful search, it will remain for the District Court to determine whether, without the evidence it provided, the search warrant issued in this case was supported by probable cause”
Agents scanned heat coming from Danny Kyllo's home before obtaining a warrant. The Supreme Court held the scan was a search, presumptively unreasonable without a warrant. Stevens's dissent viewed it as observation of information exposed outside the home.
