Legal Insights

Can FBI record citizens in a hotel room with a secret hidden camera without a warrant? Nerber (2000)

Evidence derived from video surveillance of a hotel room was suppressed by the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, Thomas S. Zilly, J., and the United States appealed. The Court of Appeals, James R. Browning, Circuit Judge, held that: (1) the Fourth Amendment protects citizens from secret video surveillance in another person’s hotel room without a warrant or the consent of a participant in the monitored activity, and (2) thus, though defendants were invited to a hotel room, rented by government agents, by informants who had consented to video surveillance, once the informants left the room, defendants had reasonable expectation to be free from hidden video surveillance.

Full case here: UNITED STATES v. NERBER, 222 F.3d 597 (2000), https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=9997732378699863410&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr

Filed under: 4th Amendment & Searches · Federal Crimes

Anton Vialtsin

Anton Vialtsin, Esq., E.I. is a San Diego criminal defense attorney and CJA Panel member in the Southern and Central Districts of California. New case breakdowns every Wednesday on YouTube.

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