CA5: Mandatory GPS monitoring of charter boats arbitrary under legislation invoked for it

A rule for mandatory GPS monitoring on all charter boats in the Gulf of Mexico, whether used commercially or for personal use at the time, was arbitrarily adopted in violation of the APA. GPS monitoring furthers no government interest under the statute invoked by the Government. The Fourth Amendment question is “considered” but not decided. Mexican Gulf Fishing Company v. U.S. Dept. of Commerce, No. 22-30105, 2023 WL 2182268 (5th Cir. Feb. 23, 2023).

Plaintiff inmate’s destruction of propery in his prison cell “was not a Fourth Amendment violation. Stewart argues the district court erred because his claim did not concern the search of his cell, but the destruction of his property. But ‘the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches does not apply in prison cells,’ Hudson v. Palmer, 468 U.S. 517, 530 (1984), nor does it apply to the destruction of personal items in a cell, see id. at 528 n.8.” Stewart v. Horton, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 4402 (6th Cir. Feb. 23, 2023).*

There was plenty of probable cause for the search warrant here despite the claim the CI involved might have been a common criminal “trying to work off a case” [which can almost always be assumed]. United States v. Ewing, 2023 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29907 (S.D. Ohio Feb. 17, 2023).*