6
CARPENTER v. UNITED STATES
Opinion of the Court
analysis is informed by historical understandings “of what
was deemed an unreasonable search and seizure when
[the Fourth Amendment] was adopted.” Carroll v. United
States, 267 U. S. 132, 149 (1925). On this score, our cases
have recognized some basic guideposts. First, that the
Amendment seeks to secure “the privacies of life” against
“arbitrary power.” Boyd v. United States, 116 U. S. 616,
630 (1886). Second, and relatedly, that a central aim of
the Framers was “to place obstacles in the way of a too
permeating police surveillance.” United States v. Di Re,
332 U. S. 581, 595 (1948).
We have kept this attention to Founding-era understandings in mind when applying the Fourth Amendment
to innovations in surveillance tools. As technology has
enhanced the Government’s capacity to encroach upon
areas normally guarded from inquisitive eyes, this Court
has sought to “assure[ ] preservation of that degree of
privacy against government that existed when the Fourth
Amendment was adopted.” Kyllo v. United States, 533
U. S. 27, 34 (2001). For that reason, we rejected in Kyllo a
“mechanical interpretation” of the Fourth Amendment and
held that use of a thermal imager to detect heat radiating
from the side of the defendant’s home was a search. Id., at
35. Because any other conclusion would leave homeowners “at the mercy of advancing technology,” we determined
that the Government—absent a warrant—could not capitalize on such new sense-enhancing technology to explore
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exclusively property-based approach. Post, at 1–2, 17–21 (THOMAS J.,
dissenting); post, at 6–9 (GORSUCH, J., dissenting). Katz of course
“discredited” the “premise that property interests control,” 389 U. S., at
353, and we have repeatedly emphasized that privacy interests do not
rise or fall with property rights, see, e.g., United States v. Jones, 565
U. S. 400, 411 (2012) (refusing to “make trespass the exclusive test”);
Kyllo v. United States, 533 U. S. 27, 32 (2001) (“We have since decoupled violation of a person’s Fourth Amendment rights from trespassory
violation of his property.”). Neither party has asked the Court to
reconsider Katz in this case.