Dow Chemical Co. v. United States, BY and Through Administrator, Environmental Protection Agency (476 U.S. 227)
U.S. Supreme Court · decided May 19, 1986 · Supreme Court Database (Spaeth)
- Citation
- 476 U.S. 227 · 106 S. Ct. 1819
- Decided
- May 19, 1986
- Term
- October Term 1985
- Vote
- 5–4
- Majority author
- Justice Burger
- Issue area
- Criminal Procedure
- Disposition
- Affirmed
- Outcome
- Petitioning party lost
- Ideological direction
- Conservative
Opinion excerpt
Chief Justice Burger delivered the opinion of the Court. We granted certiorari to review the holding of the Court of Appeals (a) that the Environmental Protection Agency’s aerial observation of petitioner’s plant complex did not exceed EPA’s statutory investigatory authority, and (b) that EPA’s aerial photography of petitioner’s 2,000-acre plant complex without a warrant was not a search under the Fourth Amendment. I Petitioner Dow Chemical Co. operates a 2,000-acre facility manufacturing chemicals at Midland, Michigan. The facility consists of numerous covered buildings, with manufacturing equipment and piping conduits located between the various buildings exposed to visual observation from the air. At all times, Dow has maintained elaborate security around the perimeter of the complex barring ground-level public views of these areas. It also investigates any low-level flights by aircraft over the facility. Dow has not undertaken, however, to conceal all manufacturing equipment within the complex from aerial views. Dow maintains that the cost of covering its exposed equipment would be prohibitive. In early 1978, enforcement officials of EPA, with Dow’s consent, made an on-site inspection of two powerplants in this complex. A subsequent EPA request for a second inspection, however, was denied, and EPA did not thereafter seek an administrative search warrant. Instead, EPA…
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