DETROIT (AP) - A Michigan city violated the U.S. Constitution by chalking tires to enforce parking limits, but it won’t be forced to refund thousands of tickets in the class-action case, a judge said.Saginaw must only pay vehicle owners "nominal damages" of $1.00 for each marking, U.S.
District Judge Thomas Ludington said Monday."The basic problem is that chalking is relatively harmless," he said, noting there was no damage to cars.Saginaw staff marked tires and subsequently wrote tickets if they returned to find a vehicle was parked too long.After five years of litigation, including two appeals to a higher court, Ludington ruled in favor of Alison Taylor, who received 14 tickets.
The judge said marking tires without a warrant violated constitutional protections against unreasonable searches."No reasonable person would argue that something as trivial and transitory as chalk on a tire offends a reasonable expectation of privacy.
But the Fourth Amendment protects more than those expectations that society deems reasonable," Ludington said.Saginaw, among other arguments, had cited a 1974 U.S.