FAA Rule Requiring Remote ID of Drones Deemed Constitutional (1)

A drone equipment store lost its constitutional challenge to a Federal Aviation Administration rule that requires drones to emit public radio signals that identify its whereabouts and its owner’s, after a three-judge appellate panel in Washington, D.C., Friday said the rule doesn’t violate a reasonable expectation of privacy.

RaceDayQuads and its owner, Tyler Brennan, sued the agency, claiming that the Remote Identification Rule amounts to “constant, warrantless governmental surveillance” in violation of the Fourth Amendment. Brennan claims that law enforcement could use the electronic license plate to carry out continuous surveillance of the drone pilots’ public locations or reveal the identity of the operator’s home.

But Judge Cornelia Pillard of the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit ruled that the limited, real-time information sharing while a drone is in flight is a “far cry” from continuous surveillance.

Pillard, joined by Judges Robert L. Wilkins and Justin R. Walker, wrote that there’s no basis to conclude that the FAA would devote time and resources to exploit the rule and conduct extended surveillance.

The rule doesn’t infringe on an operator’s reasonable expectation of privacy, Pillard said.

“Drone pilots generally lack any reasonable expectation of privacy in the location of their drone systems during flight,” Pillard said. “A ‘search’ for purposes of the Fourth Amendment occurs when government action infringes a sphere an individual seeks to preserve as private and the expectation of privacy is one society considers reasonable under the circumstances.”

Pillard shot down Brennan’s argument that the rule must be vacated due to procedural missteps the FAA allegedly made in promulgating it, finding that Brennan failed to show that the agency did anything that would invalidate the rule.

Brennan is represented by Yodice Associates, Parlatore Law Group, and Rupprecht Law PA.

The case is Brennan v. Dickson, D.C. Cir., No. 21-01087, 7/29/22.