Blog Updates
In a new case, Taylor v. City of Saginaw, the Sixth Circuit has ruled that the common practice of parking enforcement officers “chalking” a tire to see if the car has been moved violates the Fourth Amendment. I’m not sure the decision is correct. But it’s plausible on current law, and it raises some really interesting conceptual issues. Here’s an overview of the new case and some thoughts on whether it’s right. First, the facts. Alison Taylor gets a lot of parking tickets, and she decided to make a federal case out of it. Specifically, she sued the city of Saginaw in federal court. She alleged that her constitutional rights were violated by practice of “chalking” her tire to figure out if she had overstayed the time she was permitted to park her car. I don’t know of any other cases in which “chalking” was alleged to violate the Fourth Amendment. But the Sixth Circuit ruled that it did, in a decision authored by Judge Donald joined by Judge Kethledge and Judge Keith. And the court’s reasoning seems broadly applicable to all of our cars, not just Alison Taylor’s. Here’s the court’s thinking. First, the court reasons that the chalking is a search of the car because it is a trespass on to the car to obtain information under United States v. Jones. It’s a trespass under Jones, the court says, because it satisfies the common law trespass test:
Next, it is an act conducted to obtain information, as Jones requires:
Having concluded that the chalking was a search, the court then concludes that it was unreasonable and therefore unconstitutional. The basic idea here is that no exceptions to the warrant requirement apply, so by default the warrantless search is unlawful. First, the automobile exception does not apply:
Next, the search was not reasonable under the community caretaker exception:
And finally, the search was not justifiable based on a general interest in having an orderly parking system:
Here are a few thoughts on the case: (1) From a practical perspective, this is a really important decision. It concludes that a routine practice that wasn’t thought to be illegal (if it was thought of at all) is actually unconstitutional. I’m not sure if the decision is correct. And as I’ll explain below, there are several plausible but debatable moves in the opinion. But this decision is now binding in the Sixth Circuit and may also be followed elsewhere: Traffic enforcement officers around the country should be paying attention to this. (2) Is the decision right? As I said above, I’m not sure. United States v. Jones introduced the idea of the trespass or physical intrusion test for searches in 2012. As I’ve written before, Jones could mean a lot of different things. It’s just not yet clear what the standard is or how it should apply. Given that, I think the result in Taylor is plausible but that it’s also subject to several plausible objections. (3) Start with the question of trespass. First, the court takes from Jones the idea that the test is “common law trespass." Maybe that’s the test. But maybe it’s not. The Court in Florida v. Jardines notably did not describe the Jones test as a trespass test. Instead, Jardines described the test as "physical intrusion." That’s potentially pretty different. And assuming the test is common law trespass, figuring out what kind of trespass test that meant is actually pretty tricky. Maybe it’s the Restatement test, but maybe it’s something different. (4) I’m also not sure of the court's conclusion that the chalking was "to obtain information,” needed to satisfy the search test from Jones. That’s certainly a possible result. But it also strikes me as a somewhat awkward fit. Here’s the context. In Jones, the officer installed the GPS device on a suspect’s car and then obtained GPS info from it as the car was tracked for 28 days. The majority ruled this a search in part on the ground that installing the GPS was done to obtain information—specifically, the stream of data from the GPS that would provide the location of the car to which it was attached. Here’s the most relevant discussion of the intent test from Footnote 5 of Jones:
The Sixth Circuit in Taylor sees that element satisfied by the chalking. And it is no doubt true that the officer chalked the car with the ultimate goal of finding out a fact—whether the car had moved. That may be right under Jones. On the other hand, it seems like a somewhat unusual application of the intent test. I would think the Fourth Amendment idea of a “search” of a person’s “effects” ordinarily implies intent to obtain information from the effect searched. Normally, searching a box means getting information from inside the box. Searching a home means getting information from inside the home. In Taylor, however, the officer’s plan is to place his chalk on the car and then come back later and see if the chalk moved—thus giving the officer a clue about whether the car moved. That’s information about the car, but it seems removed from a search of the car itself. After all, the car is just out in public. It is sitting on a public street for anyone to see. And the officer is just looking at the chalk the officer placed. Is it really a search of the car at Time A to see at Time B if the chalk moved between Time A and Time B? Maybe yes. Maybe the problem is that Jones itself was an awkward fit. The obtaining of information in Jones was also just ultimately about the car and where it had been in public, as well. And the Supreme Court apparently found that sufficient. But it’s at least a question worth raising: Are there limits on what kind of information the government needs to want to obtain, and from what, and when, to satisfy the Jones test? (5) Assuming the chalking is a search, the next question is whether it is constitutionally reasonable. I agree with the Court’s analysis of the automobile exception and the community care-taking exception. But I suspect some courts might disagree with the Sixth Circuit’s reasonableness analysis on the ground that chalking is a de minimis search as part of a regulatory scheme. It’s just putting a temporary mark on a tire, it causes no damage, and it doesn’t reveal anything. Some courts have articulated doctrines that allow low-level searches as reasonable based on a balancing of interests without particularized suspicion. I can imagine that as a possible path for other courts. We’ll see. (5) I have to wonder how much this issue matters in a world of smart phones. Everyone is now carrying around a camera. Instead of chalking the tire, the parking folks can just take a picture of the car. They can figure out if the car moved by comparing the pictures at Time A and Time B to see if the car is in the same place. It may be more complicated or expensive than chalking, but it avoids the Fourth Amendment concern by just observing what is in public without any physical attachment to property. (6) Finally, it’s not at all clear what if any remedies may be applicable. Chalking is common and hasn’t been thought to be illegal. Given that, qualified immunity should attach and civil suits against the officers won’t work. And it’s not clear that there is any exclusionary rule available in an enforcement action to pay the parking ticket, as that is a civil proceeding and the exclusionary rule may not apply under United States v. Janis. via Tumblr [Orin Kerr] Chalking Tires and the Fourth Amendment
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