Burlington Free Press.com
MONTPELIER — The Vermont Supreme Court today ruled that a helicopter surveillance of a man’s property during a marijuana investigation violated his constitutional right to privacy that includes the airspace above a person’s home and property.

The case involved a man who was convicted of felony possession and cultivation of marijuana.

In the 4-1 decision, the court concluded that the National Guard helicopter that flew over the man’s property in the Goshen area to detect marijuana cultivation flew too low — at 100 feet above the ground for up to 30 minutes — and was “an unreasonable intrusion of privacy that triggers constitutional protection.”

Gee, you think a half-hour of chopper hovering over your home might be a bit intrusive?  Good work, Vermont Supreme Court!  Now if you could apply the same logic of intrusion to forcing Vermonters to have to pee in front of a stranger to get a job…

What galls me about the story is the words “National Guard helicopter”.  Up to 1,500 Vermonters of its 4,000-strong National Guard have served in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past five years.  Regardless how you feel about those wars, I can’t imagine that those Vermonters in the Middle East dealing with day-to-day equipment shortages, low manpower and resources feel too proud of their equipment being used back home to bust pot gardeners.  Just how many Vermont taxpayer dollars and National Guard manpower hours are being wasted to discover clandestine ganja growsites?