Published on: Sunday, June 27, 2021

The City of Baltimore had a fleet of planes secret fly above the city taking high resolution photos of the entire city, often for twelve hours a day, enabling them to track the movements of just about everyone as part of its "Aerial Investigation Research" (AIR). En banc Fourth Circuit: "Because the AIR program enables police to deduce from the whole of individuals' movements, we hold that accessing its data is a search and its warrantless operation violates the Fourth Amendment."

The case is Leaders of Beautiful Struggle v. Baltimore Police Department, No. 20-1495 (4th Cir. June 24, 2021).