“It’s become much more than a drone case. A second question is: if the courts rule that the drone images were obtained illegally, can the images still be used in a civil case filed against the property owner? But this goes beyond drones for routine civil investigations, and that could include things like child protective services,” Skorup said. The municipality had a reason to believe that the Maxons were operating an unpermitted salvage yard, by storing too many junked cars on their property, Skorup said. The case has bounced around the Michigan court system for years, until last year it reached the state Supreme Court, which vacated previous rulings and remanded the case back to a lower court.