Participated in an amicus brief (with the Reporters Committee and other amici) filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas in National Press Photographers Association v. McCraw, a First Amendment challenge to Texas’s drone regulations. The brief highlights the uses of drones in journalism and argues that Chapter 423 of the Texas Government Code impermissibly discriminates on the basis of speaker identity: It provides exceptions from its prohibitions for other professionals who use unmanned aerial vehicles to gather information, including academics, insurers, and engineers, but not for the press. The brief concludes that the statute’s Surveillance and No-Fly provisions are unconstitutional and should be invalidated. [2021]
