Rattle wrote:

] Comments have been made regarding the 4th Amendment and the
] Patriot Act.. I could be missing details, but it seems like
] the Patriot Act was only what they charged him under, not how
] they collected evidence. I await to see how it is handled in
] the court. A sentence maximum of 25 years would actually make
] sense in a case where it was the expressed goal to take out
] the aircraft and its passengers. In a case of being stupid, I
] would assume the maximum would not apply. I could be wrong.
]
] If a police helicopter looking for places shooting lasers at
] aircraft found itself being shot with a laser, well, that's
] not very intrusive. I don't see a 4th Admendment angle here.
] The search was in public space the searchers are designated to
] protect. The seizure occurred in a situation where the
] specific place and the specific item were identified. That is
] like a cop car driving around your neighborhood looking for
] people shooting bullets at cars, and finding itself shot at.

My thinking behind the 4th Amendment issue was more around 'punishment needs to fit the crime.' It's an abuse of police/state power to destroy this guys life for being an idiot and pointing a laser pointer at an airplane. Kinda like it's an abuse of power to throw a man in jail for taking an order to place an ad in the newspaper for an escort service.

RE: NJ Man charged with aiming laser at aircraft