Damn.. That sucks.. Be interesting to see how that plays out. The Feds have authority over the airspace and supersedes local laws. However, they can regulate where you take off from. But that raises the question; If you take off from your own private property does it fall under their jurisdiction still? See Below..
State and local government drone law.
State and local governments have passed legislation that purports to regulate drone flight, but if challenged in court, any such laws would be considered
preempted by the federal government's intent to "occupy the field," and therefore be invalid. By federal statute, "[t]he United States Government has exclusive sovereignty of airspace of the United States" (
49 U.S. Code § 40103(a)(1)). The passage of the FMRA confirms the federal government's intent to continue to "occupy the field" of flight, thereby invalidating (through preemption) any state or local laws that purport to regulate it.
State and local governments may, however, regulate two things related to flight:
- They may regulate their own agencies' drone flight operations; and
- They may regulate the locations on the ground from which drones may be launched, landed or operated.
That's it. State and local governments cannot regulate drones in any other manner. They can of course use laws of
general applicability (such as voyeurism, reckless endangerment, nuisance, etc.) to prohibit certain
acts, which would apply to a drone pilot, if a drone happened to be the
objectused to perform the prohibited
act. They
could also pass unnecessary and duplicative criminal statutes specific to drones, but they'd be essentially meaningless since existing criminal statutes would already cover those crimes regardless of whether they were committed with a drone.
