Under the Fourth Amendment overflight doctrine, which may a law enforcement officer observe from an aircraft in navigable airspace?

• A. Open fields and anything observable from the aircraft in navigable airspace.
• B. Inside a curtilage home without a warrant.
• C. Hidden compartments inside a vehicle with a search warrant.
• D. Sealed containers not visible from outside.

Answer: (D)

From the Fourth Amendment overflight doctrine, officers may observe from public navigable airspace only what is plainly visible. The open fields rule means there’s no reasonable expectation of privacy in open fields, so aerial sight of those areas is permissible and not a search. Therefore, observing open fields and anything clearly visible from the aircraft is allowed.

Observing inside a curtilage home from the air would violate privacy protections and generally requires a warrant or appropriate exception. Hidden compartments inside a vehicle cannot be discerned from the air unless their contents are plainly visible from above, and sealed containers not visible from outside reveal nothing from aerial observation. The key idea is that only what is plainly visible from the air can be observed without turning the observation into a search.