When a Kentucky man shot his neighbor’s drone out of the sky over his house this July, the story hit a nerve. What’s a guy to do when there’s a drone snooping in his backyard, scaring his kids?
It seemed every talking head, from Kentucky state representatives to local news anchors to Fox & Friends, had come to a consensus: there ought to be a law.
Drones hover at an uneasy intersection of state laws and FAA regulations, civil claims for nuisance and trespass, and new state legislation. As a criminal procedure scholar, I’m used to considering the ramifications of domestic drone surveillance by the government, but drones manned by nosy neighbors are something else. The question is, do we really need more laws specific to drones?
Media lawyers Michael Berry and Nabiha Syed would argue not. These laws “either fail to meaningfully address any perceived harm or sweep too ...
