Form Over Function? Pole Cameras, Tuggle, and the Fourth Amendment

Abstract

On July 14, 2021, in United States v. Tuggle, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit held that the warrantless use of pole cameras to continuously surveil a suspect for eighteen months did not constitute a Fourth Amendment search. In doing so, the Seventh Circuit contributed to a growing body of judicial disagreement about the proper approach to technology-enabled searches, mosaic theory, and the scope of the United States Supreme Court’s decision in Carpenter v. United States. This Comment argues that the approach in Tuggle is incorrect because it unnecessarily narrows Carpenter and relies on assumptions no longer relevant to technology-enabled searches.