Drone Trespassing is the Biggest Legal Issue Users Will Face Soon

The growing legal controversy about drone trespass that federal lawmakers have avoided for years

Today we are living in a technology-driven world. And the rapid growth in drone technology is not an exception. The drone industry has continued to uplift in recent years in both the commercial and consumer markets. As with the legal regime for any new technology, drone laws require time to progress as courts, state and federal governments, and legal experts wrestle with ways to fit the new possibilities offered by drones into existing legal doctrines. The questions have been raised in the sheets of the Wall Street Journals, law reviews, and web forums for years if it is possible to prevent a drone from flying above homes? Can a drone’s passage over the home be counted as trespassing? These are arduous questions that have been avoided by federal lawmakers for years, even as the Federal Aviation Administration started allowing drone operators to do routine delivery operations this year. Drone trespass cases will only proliferate nationwide. There’s a way forward—drone easements above public roads—that safeguard private property, defend federal and state agencies from takings lawsuits, and encourage commercial drone services. But time is running out as drone litigation commences. Lawmakers haven’t clarified matters, so courts are showing their interference, though court decisions can be narrow and haphazard.  

Curious Editing of FAA Policy

Strangely, industry rising points are creeping into federal regulators’ documents. As a result, FAA guidance to states and cities—which is used to promote FAA-state collaboration—is bewildering and contradictory. For instance, the 2015 guidance expected that states and cities will regulate drone operations, but encourages consultation with the FAA before acting. In July 2018, however, someone at the FAA modified the agency’s public guidance by adding the assertion—supplying no legal support—that state and local governments “are not permitted to regulate” drone flight paths and altitudes. Confusingly, that webpage still points state and local officials to the initial, more permissive guidance.