Dow Chemical Co. v. United States
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued December 10, 1985 Decided May 19, 1986
Full case name	Dow Chemical Company v. United States
Citations	476 U.S. 227 (more) 106 S. Ct. 1819; 90 L. Ed. 2d 226
Argument	Oral argument
Case history
Prior	Summary judgment for plaintiff, 536 F. Supp. 1355 (E.D. Mich. 1982); reversed on appeal, 749 F.2d 307 (6th Cir. 1984); cert. granted, 472 U.S. 1007 (1985).
Holding
The Fourth Amendment protects against the invasion of areas where intimate activities occur, whereas "the open areas of an industrial complex are more comparable to an 'open field' in which an individual may not legitimately demand privacy."
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Byron White Thurgood Marshall · Harry Blackmun Lewis F. Powell Jr. · William Rehnquist John P. Stevens · Sandra Day O'Connor
Case opinions
Majority	Burger, joined by White, Rehnquist, Stevens, O'Connor
Concur/dissent	Powell (concur Part III, dissent Parts I-II), joined by Brennan, Marshall, Blackmun
Laws applied
U.S. Const. amend. IV

Dow Chemical Co. v. United States, 476 U.S. 227 (1986), was a United States Supreme Court case decided in 1986 dealing with the right to privacy and advanced technology of aerial surveillance.

Factual background and decision[edit]

The EPA used, without a warrant, a commercial aerial photographer to get photographs of a heavily guarded Dow facility that was, according to the petitioner, protected by the State Trade Secrecy Law. The decision: For purposes of aerial surveillance, the open areas of an industrial complex are more comparable to an "open field" in which an individual may not legitimately demand privacy.^[1] In the absence of a "reasonable expectation of privacy" the Fourth Amendment prohibiting unreasonable searches does not apply.

See also[edit]

• Aerial surveillance doctrine
• California v. Ciraolo, 476 U.S. 207 (1986)
• California v. Greenwood, 486 U.S. 35 (1988)
• Curtilage
• Expectation of privacy
• Florida v. Riley, 488 U.S. 445 (1989)
• Kyllo v. United States, 533 U.S. 27 (2001)
• Open-fields doctrine

References[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Diane Rosenwasser Skalak, Dow Chemical Co. v. United States: Aerial Surveillance and the Fourth Amendment, 3 Pace Envtl. L. Rev. 277 (1986) Available at: http://digitalcommons.pace.edu/pelr/vol3/iss2/6
• "AERIAL SEARCHES OF FENCED AREAS UPHELD BY COURT," The New York Times (May 20, 1986)

External links[edit]

• Text of Dow Chemical Co. v. United States, 476 U.S. 227 (1986) is available from: Findlaw  Google Scholar  Justia  Library of Congress  Oyez (oral argument audio)