Free the Lobstermen

Imagine being tracked 24/7 by the government. That’s what’s happening to Maine lobstermen—and it’s the subject of a lawsuit petitioned to the U.S. Supreme Court right now.

In 2023, the federal government demanded that lobstermen submit to constant, warrantless GPS surveillance on their boats or they’d lose their licenses. Maine’s Department of Marine Resources adopted and reinforced the requirement statewide. Lobstermen must install GPS trackers that send their boats’ location to the government at least once per minute, including when the boat is docked or being used for personal purposes.

For a lobsterman like Frank Thompson, who lives on Vinalhaven and has worked on lobster boats for 55 years, the mandate is a violation of privacy and basic freedom. “No matter where I am, what I’m doing, you’ve got to be tracked,” Frank says. “Even if I’m out on a picnic with my family.”

Frank uses his boat the way most people use a car. When his daughter-in-law went into labor, he raced her across the bay to the mainland. Every trip like that is now on the government’s record.

There’s something else at stake too. Frank’s knowledge of where to fish—built over a lifetime on the water, passed down through generations—is his family’s most valuable asset. “If they put this black box together with the landings every day, they know where I’m fishing every second and every pound that I’m catching,” he says. “And that’s going on tradition—taking my history, what I’ve learned, passed down to my kids.”

These are lobstermen, not suspects in a crime. During the rulemaking process, Maine’s own lobstermen said the surveillance treats them “like criminals”—for doing their jobs.

Frank took the government to court. A district court sided with the government. An appeals court upheld that ruling in November 2025, claiming lobstering qualifies as an “exception” to the Fourth Amendment.

Pacific Legal Foundation now represents Frank now in a petition to the Supreme Court, along with co-counsel Mark Pinkert of the Holtzman Vogel law firm. We’re asking the Supreme Court to strike down the tracking rule and vindicate the Fourth Amendment rights of all Maine lobstermen.

Pacific Legal Foundation is a national public interest law firm that defends constitutional rights in court, free of charge. We’ve been fighting for freedom for over 50 years and have won landmark cases at the Supreme Court. We represent every client free of charge.

Now, in Maine, we’re fighting to free lobstermen like Frank from a trap they don’t deserve.

To find out whether the Supreme Court grants Frank’s case—and to learn about other cases defending freedom across the country—sign up for PLF’s weekly newsletter, The Docket.