A commercial lobsterman has petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court to rule against 24/7 GPS monitoring of the Maine lobster fleet, arguing that the unmitigated surveillance is a violations of his rights.
In 2023, Maine regulators began requiring all commercial lobstermen to install GPS monitoring devices on their vessels, enabling 24/7 tracking as called for by the Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission. The devices send minute-by-minute location data to the state at all times, even when the vessels are docked.
Shortly after the rule went into effect, five lobstermen – including Frank Thompson – sued the state to overturn the requirement, arguing that it was a violation of their rights.
“Under this rule, lobstermen like Frank are being subjected to the government’s unending, invasive trespass to property and surveillance – and threatened with the loss of their licenses and livelihoods to force compliance,” Pacific Legal Foundation Director of Environment and Natural Resources Litigation Mark Miller said in a release.
The Pacific Legal Foundation is representing Thompson in the case free of charge.
However, the lobstermen’s case has not been received warmly by the courts. The district court dismissed the case in 2024. Thompson filed an appeal with the Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and the higher court upheld that dismissal, arguing that the mandated surveillance did not conflict with the Fourth Amendment.
Now, Thompson has petitioned the Supreme Court to revive his lawsuit and rule on the 24/7 tracking requirement. Key to the petitioner’s case is the fact that Thompson uses his vessel for both commercial and non-commercial activities.
“For Petitioner Frank Thompson, a fifth-generation lobsterman, his business in the lobstering industry is his family’s livelihood. But Thompson, like many lobstermen, also uses his fishing boat for personal activities unrelated to lobstering,” the petition reads. “Maine tracks lobstermen’s boats 24/7 – even outside work areas and hours when they are not using their boats for lobstering. This case presents important Fourth Amendment questions about trespass on and constant surveillance of private property used for both commercial and noncommercial purposes.”
Similar 24/7-tracking requirements have been challenged in courts previously. In 2024, Dungeness crab fishers in Washington challenged a similar rule in 2024.
“The desire of agencies to always know a regulated party’s location is not driven by legitimate regulatory needs,” New Civil Liberties Alliance (NCLA) Senior Litigation Counsel John Vecchione said at the time. “We need this suit to remind the agency that our constitutions – state and federal – don’t allow that.”
In 2023, the Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit noted that 24/7 GPS monitoring of charter fishing vessels in the Gulf of Mexico likely violated the Fourth Amendment and struck it down.
Now, Thompson and his attorneys hope the Supreme Court will weigh in on such 24/7 tracking requirements.
“This is an obvious violation of the Fourth Amendment,” Miller said. “We urge the Supreme Court to strengthen its precedents for trespass to privacy and prevent government agencies from abusing Americans’ rights through administrative law loopholes.”
