Note: “Honey There’s A Drone on the Lawn”: Assessing the Supreme Court’s Unspoken Perspective on the Future of Drones in the Commercial Industry

18 Wake Forest J. Bus. & Intell. Prop. L. 143

The American entertainment industry dedicated a substantial part
of the twentieth century to producing thousands of films and television
shows depicting future illustrations of what life in the United States
would look like in a post-millennium world. These works often
conjured up images of flying cars, hover boards, and encounters with
extra-terrestrial life forms. Among these images were also the
commonly depicted unmanned aircraft. With the rapidly expanding
technological industry in the United States, such technology is no
longer a figment of the imagination, but rather an emerging reality.

Antonin Scalia’s sudden death in February 2016 left the Supreme
Court sitting idle without one of its most famous perspectives. With
the rapidly growing commercialization of drones in the United States,
it is only a matter of time before the Supreme Court will decide
whether drones will be permitted in the public sector by commercial
delivery corporations. The appointment of Justice Neil Gorsuch in
April 2017 provided the Court a more predictable perspective, 5 but the
definitive governance of the Court remains to be seen. This Article
will address the growing legal concerns of drones being incorporated
into today’s open market and the future governance that may help
decide the fate of this emerging industry.