The U.S. Supreme Court is scheduled to consider on Sept. 28 whether to hear a Maine lobsterman’s constitutional challenge to the state’s electronic vessel-tracking rule, moving a dispute over fishing regulation and privacy to the justices’ certiorari conference.
The case, Thompson v. Wilson, does not yet place the legality of the rule before the Supreme Court for a final decision. The immediate question is whether at least four justices will vote to grant review. The court’s official docket lists the case as No. 25-1105 and records the filings submitted by lobsterman Frank Thompson and Maine Department of Marine Resources Commissioner Carl Wilson.
Thompson, a federally permitted Maine lobsterman, argues that requiring a GPS device on his privately owned fishing boat amounts to an unreasonable warrantless search. His March petition says the tracker must remain installed and transmit location data even when the vessel is in the water for noncommercial use. He is asking the justices to determine whether the Fourth Amendment’s protection against government trespass applies to this type of administrative inspection.
Maine adopted the tracking requirement in 2023 for lobstermen who hold federal permits, implementing an Atlantic States Marine Fisheries Commission program intended to improve information about fishing activity. The First Circuit’s November 2025 opinion says the devices transmit GPS location data once per minute and must remain powered whenever a covered vessel is in the water. Potential consequences for noncompliance include a civil fine and license suspension.
The federal appeals court affirmed dismissal of Thompson’s challenge. Its ruling treated lobster fishing as a closely regulated industry and concluded that the tracking program qualifies as a reasonable administrative search. The court also noted that Maine conceded GPS tracking constitutes a Fourth Amendment search, while the parties agreed the state has a substantial interest in regulating the fishery and supporting its long-term viability.
Those points frame the dispute rather than resolve it. Thompson contends the administrative-search doctrine cannot justify continuous physical tracking outside commercial activity. Maine’s position, upheld below, is that the rule fits the regulatory structure governing a licensed fishery that operates across state and federal waters.
The timing matters beyond one vessel. The Associated Press reported that electronic and human monitoring systems are widely used to collect commercial-fishing data and that the case could affect the broader industry. Maine landed more than 78 million pounds of lobster last year, according to the same report, down sharply from annual catches that regularly exceeded 120 million pounds a decade earlier.
A Sept. 28 conference does not guarantee an immediate public decision. The court may grant review, deny the petition or take no action that day. Unless the justices intervene, the First Circuit ruling remains in force and Maine’s tracking requirement continues to apply to covered federally permitted vessels.
