If the "Donate Now" link isn't working, we can still get contributions via PayPal directly to our MCDO attorney, Dean Greenblatt. PayPal donations to: [email protected]

The University of Michigan is fighting against legal drone operations! Your help is needed today!

The University of Michigan is threatening drone operators with jail time and huge fines. Campus police have been targeting drone operators for flying on, near, or over campuses in Ann Arbor, Flint, and Dearborn. In the latest development they sent a letter advising that they would arrest operators and confiscate their drones. Enough is enough. The University has an anti-drone ordinance prohibiting the use of drones on and even over campus in full violation of Michigan state law MCL 259.305 and attempting to usurp FAA sole jurisdiction of airspace (49 USC 40103). Officials at the University have been advised on numerous occasions that their ordinance is illegal, preempted, and an affront to the rights of drone operators. Rather than correct the concern, the University has doubled down and is actively seeking to detain drone operators.

The Michigan Coalition of Drone Operators (MCDO) is an organization standing in their way. Having already won every case they've brought to court, including the precedent-setting MCDO v Ottawa County decision in the Michigan Court of Appeals, our organization sees this threat as the top-most concern. This week MCDO has filed suit against the University of Michigan seeking an injunction to protect drone operators and advance continued legal drone flights.

Your donations are needed to fight the University and establish that anti-drone policies at Universities that violate state and Federal law must not stand. Michigan was one of 17 states that passed a drone preemption law that disallows local governments from creating or enforcing their own drone ordinances. A win in this case similar to MCDO's wins over Genesee County and Ottawa County establishes statewide precedent to finally stop local governments from creating regulatory patchwork that makes it impossible for a drone operator to know where they can or can't legally fly. A precedent established in Michigan will also serve notice to the rest of the nation's universities who also have anti-drone ordinances. It will become a model for other states to pass preemption if they haven't already done so and warn local governments and colleges that they shouldn't attempt to restrict drone operations.

This legal defense fund will help eliminate anti-drone ordinances and criminalization of drone flying. Please consider helping today with a donation to this cause.

If the "Donate Now" link isn't working, we can still get contributions via PayPal directly to our MCDO attorney, Dean Greenblatt. PayPal donations to: [email protected]