Legal Question in Constitutional Law in Michigan

Re: Does fence ordinance violate fourth amendment;backyard privacy?

The ordinance you describe is perfectly constitutional. Since your violation is evidently due only to the height of the fence, all you need to do in order to comply should be to shorten the fence or replace it with one that is short enough to meet the town's requirements.

The Fourth Amendment is of no help to you here. It protects you from unreasonable seraches and seizures by the government, but does not mean you can do whatever you feel like in the name of your personal privacy.

There is no "curtilage clause" in the Fourth Amendment. Some cases interpreting the amendment do say that it applies to the curtilage of a home as well as to the home itself, but again that is just a limitation on government searches and is not applicable here.

The fact that this is the only such citation the town has ever written is not an issue by itself, though you could conceivably make a case about selective enforcement. You would have to show that the towh has declined to issue citations under similar circumstances (it may be that no one ever complained about a violation before, in which case the fact that you are the first has no legal significance), that the reason they singled you out is wrongful (e.g., due to your race, in retribution for some unrelated dispute with the town, etc.) and that you have been damaged as a result. My guess is that you can't even come close to satisfying these requirements. Even if you could, it is not clear that you could bring such a claim.

And no, paying the fine does not mean you can keep the lattice up. The city can fine you again and again until you take it down, or it can have you held in contempt for violating a court order. For that matter, it can do both.

And what is your problem with the fact that people can see you carrying groceries into your house? You don't claim that the neighbors actually see into the house itself, and you have no reasonable expectation of privacy re: what you do in your driveway. Your concern about being watched while hanging up laundry is a little more understandable, but not much. If you don't like the fact that people can see you, just get a dryer (which would probably have cost less than the fence) or run a clothesline inside. You have no one to blame but yourself if you find this embarassing; after all, there's a reason people say you should never air your dirty laundry in public.