Sixth Circuit says chalking tires is an unreasonable warrantless search

The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, in Chicago, found last month that the chalking of tires to enforce parking time restrictions constituted a warrantless search, which was unreasonable, thus throwing out fifteen parking tickets. In Taylor v. City of Saginaw, Cause No. 17-2126, Judge Bernice Donald found that the restrictions on a search were equivalent to a trespass to chattel. The case turned on the facts of United States v. Jones, 565 U.S. 400 (2012), which found that the government's attachment of a GPS device to a car to track the car's movements constituted a search under the Fourth Amendment.

This analysis seems to me to be overbroad, and I expect that it will not remain the law. But in the Sixth Circuit, for now, chalking a car's tires is verboten.