Ban on drones moving forward in nine states, passes in Virginia city
Lawmakers in nine states are looking at plans to restrict the use of drones over their skies amid concerns the unmanned aerial vehicles could be exploited to spy on Americans.
Reports are going public that the American Civil Liberties Union said state legislators are proposing various restrictions on the new technology, motivated in large part by the DOJ memo which outlines the legal reasoning to use the drones, even on American citizens.
The ACLU said the nine states are Oregon, California, Montana, Texas, Nebraska, Missouri, North Dakota, Florida and Virginia.
The Montana Senate looked at two bills Tuesday that hinder the use of drones, most often associated with overseas wars.
Charlottesville, Virginia has become the first city in the United States to formally pass an anti-drone resolution.
The resolution, passed Monday, “calls on the United States Congress and the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Virginia to adopt legislation prohibiting information obtained from the domestic use of drones from being introduced into a Federal or State court,” and “pledges to abstain from similar uses with city-owned, leased, or borrowed drones.”
Councilmember Dede Smith, who voted in favor of the bill, says that drones are “pretty clearly a threat to our constitutional right to privacy.”
“If we don’t get out ahead of it to establish some guidelines for how drones are used, they will be used in a very invasive way and we’ll be left to try and pick up the pieces,” she says.
A drone was used during the Alabama hostage crisis by the FBI – read more here