Federal appeals court says tire-chalking by parking enforcement officers is unconstitutional - The Washington Post7/2/2019 Federal appeals court says tire-chalking by parking enforcement officers is unconstitutional - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/federal-appeals-court-says-tire-chalking-by-parking-enforcement-officers-is-unconstitutional/2…1/3
The Washington Post
National Security
Federal appeals court says tire-chalking by parking enforcement
officers is unconstitutional
By Fred Barbash
April 22
The age-old parking enforcement practice of tire-chalking is unconstitutional, a federal appeals court ruled
Monday, saying it violated the Fourth Amendment’s bar on unreasonable searches.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, in a first-of-its-kind decision, ruled that marking a car’s tires to
gather information is a form of trespass requiring a warrant, similar to police attaching a GPS to a vehicle to
track a suspected drug dealer.
Parking attendants across the country have been chalking tires with big white lines for decades in zones
without meters to enforce of time limits and issue tickets. It’s a substantial source of revenue for many cities.
The decision, while undoubtedly bringing joy to parking scofflaws everywhere, could cost some cities money,
either from lost revenue or having to install meters where none exist.
On the other hand, as Fourth Amendment expert Orin Kerr of the University of Southern California law
school tweeted, it “seems easy enough these days for parking enforcers to just take a photo of the car, or even
just a close-up photo of the tire, rather than chalk it. . . . No 4A issues then.”
The 6th Circuit covers the states of Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee; the court sits in Cincinnati.
The case came from Saginaw, Mich., where lawyer Philip Ellison engaged in a Facebook rant in 2016 after his
law partner, sitting in his chalked car, got ticketed while the two talked on the phone.
Ellison said a friend, Alison Taylor, saw the Facebook post and got in touch to complain about her 15th ticket
in two years. She, as plaintiff, and he, as lawyer, filed a civil rights suit against Saginaw and a named parking
enforcement officer who Ellison claims “issues more than 95 percent of the tickets.”
“We made a federal case out of tire-chalking,” said Ellison, who is seeking refunds for his client and others
caught by chalking. He acknowledged some surprise at his victory, as he could find no comparable chalking
precedents.
The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars “unreasonable searches.” But a U.S. District Court in
Bay City, Mich., had dismissed the lawsuit, concluding that chalking, while a type of search, was not at all
unreasonable.
7/2/2019 Federal appeals court says tire-chalking by parking enforcement officers is unconstitutional - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/federal-appeals-court-says-tire-chalking-by-parking-enforcement-officers-is-unconstitutional/2…2/3
People have a lesser expectation of privacy in their cars than, for example, in their homes, the district court
ruled. Plus, the lower court said, the Supreme Court has carved out a “community caretaker” exception to
warrant requirements for routine parking and traffic enforcement so police can control the hazards of clogged
streets.
Appeals court Judge Bernice Bouie Donald, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, reversed.
She said traditional law on searches of vehicles had been upended by the Supreme Court’s 2012 decision
restricting the powers of police to use GPS devices to track criminal suspects.
In United States v. Jones, Justice Antonin Scalia, writing for the majority, said that attaching the tracking
device was a form of trespass on private property by police that requires a warrant.
Donald said the chalking of Taylor’s car was just like the GPS installation, a trespass for the purpose of
gathering incriminating information and therefore a Fourth Amendment violation when done without a
warrant.
She dismissed the “caretaker” exception, saying that Taylor’s vehicle posed no safety risk. The city was trying
to raise revenue, not “mitigate [a] public hazard,” she wrote.
A lawyer for Saginaw did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Fred Barbash
Fred Barbash has been with The Washington Post for 30 plus years in a multitude of roles including but not limited to
Supreme Court reporter, National editor, London bureau chief and founding editor of The Post's Morning Mix. He has
covered all three branches of government and courts on every level and has written widely on Constitutional history. Follow
Unlimited access is true independence.
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7/2/2019 Federal appeals court says tire-chalking by parking enforcement officers is unconstitutional - The Washington Post
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/federal-appeals-court-says-tire-chalking-by-parking-enforcement-officers-is-unconstitutional/2…3/3