With the advancement of wireless technology all across America has come an expanded authority by federal regulators to enter homes without a warrant, so says the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Based on the original law that created it (the Communications Act of 1934), the FCC claims today the power to search any home or business using any licensed or unlicensed radio frequency equipment, and that includes things like wireless modems and garage door openers. This surprising claim of authority came to light when FCC agents hunted down a 100-watt pirate radio station operating out of a home in Boulder, CO, and left behind a notice informing the operators: “Whether you operate an amateur station or any other radio device, your authorization from the Commission comes with the obligation to allow inspection.”
Fortunately for those behind the Boulder pirate radio, they weren’t home at the time. The same was not true for a man in Corpus Christi, TX, who in 2007 was visited by the FCC for rebroadcasting an AM radio station through a CB radio in his home. Donald Winton refused the FCC agent to enter his home, and was fined $7,000 for denying entry (which later was knocked down to $225 after he proved economic hardship).
Civil liberties advocates vehemently object to the FCC’s interpretation of their warrantless search powers. “It is a major stretch beyond case law to assert that authority with respect to a private home, which is at the heart of the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable search and seizure,” Lee Tien of the
Electronic Frontier Foundation told
Wired. “When it is a private home and when you are talking about an over-powered Wi-Fi antenna—the idea they could just go in is honestly quite bizarre.”
-Noel Brinkerhoff
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