Wireless Gadgets Allow Warantless Searches?

Apparently, thanks to ubiquitous equipment like cordless phones, baby monitors, and something called “cell phones” and “wireless routers”, the FCC can demand access to American homes.

That’s because the FCC claims that newer gadgets that use radio waves (or are subject to the same rules that have dictated the government agency’s actions in decades past. In other words, the power to search for non-certified equipment and pirate broadcasters without a warrant.

There’s a reason why the FCC wields such authority. After all, it was created to ensure that transmitting and broadcasting entities play nice and within the allotted frequencies, and prevent the disruption of communications that may have potentially life-and-death consequences. Home privacy and FCC impetus hardly conflicted when radio devices weren’t commonplace as they are today.

Unfortunately, that’s not the case nowadays, and there may be unforeseen complications. If Wired’s interpretation of case precedent and the law is accurate, this kind of unfettered access could have bad consequences:

But if inspectors should notice evidence of unrelated criminal behavior — say, a marijuana plant or an unregistered gun — a Supreme Court decision suggests the search can be used against the resident. In the 1987 case New York v. Burger, two police officers performed a warrantless, administrative search of one Joseph Burger’s automobile junkyard. When he couldn’t produce the proper paperwork, the officers searched the grounds and found stolen vehicles, which they used to prosecute him. The Supreme Court held the search to be legal.

The same article also illustrates a case where a man refused entry to an FCC inspector: “Winton was later fined $7,000 for refusing entry to the officer. The fine was reduced to $225 after he proved he had little income.”