United States Fourth Circuit

Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries did not violate the Fourth Amendment by placing a hidden, fixed-range, motion-activated video camera in Defendant's open fields, or by using it to monitor his hawk trap. Since Defendant had no legitimate expectation of privacy, the agents were free, as on public land, to use video surveillance to capture what any passerby would have been able to observe.

Appellate Information

• Decided 01/08/2009
• Published 01/08/2009

Judges

• Before MOTZ, GREGORY, and SHEDD, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Fourth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellees:
  
• ARGUED:  James Orlando Broccoletti, Zoby & Broccoletti, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellant.  Dee Mullarkey Sterling, Office of the United States Attorney, Norfolk, Virginia, for Appellee.   ON BRIEF:  Chuck Rosenberg, United States Attorney, Alexandria, Virginia, for Appellee.