If you are like me.  And you’ve ever been frustrated with yellow chalk on your car tires courtesy of parking enforcement.  There’s good news.  Well at least if you reside in a state encompassed by the 6^th Circuit which includes Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. 

In short, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit unanimously agreed that chalking tires is tantamount to a trespass.  The Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution prohibits “unreasonable searches and seizures”.  The court held chalking tires is indeed a “search” under a Fourth Amendment analysis. 

Furthermore, the court held the search was not reasonable, the city searched ‘lawfully parked vehicles without probable cause or even individualized suspicion of wrongdoing’ the standard for a reasonableness analysis under the Fourth Amendment. 

So without further adieu, a hearty congratulations to the attorneys who litigated this issue all the way to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit.  Who knows?  Maybe someday this issue will be litigated successfully in the 9^th Circuit which includes Washington and Oregon. 

See the NPR article here.

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