Google Me: Should Information From Google Maps Be Subject To Judicial Notice?

Judicial notice is a doctrine of evidence applied by a court that allows the court to recognize and accept the existence of a particular fact commonly known by persons of average intelligence without establishing its existence by admitting evidence in a civil or criminal action. Federal Rule of Evidence 201(b) provides that

The court may judicially notice a fact that is not subject to reasonable dispute because it:

(1) is generally known within the trial court’s territorial jurisdiction; or

(2) can be accurately and readily determined from sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.

The opinion of the Second Circuit in Ke Chiang Dai v. Holder, 2012 WL 10969 (2nd Cir. 2012), is the second recent opinion (see here) to find that a court may take judicial notice of information from Google Maps. But how comfortable should we be with these conclusions?

In Holder, an Immigration Judge denied Ke Chiang Dai’s application for asylum, withholding of removal, and relief under the Convention Against Torture, and the BIA later affirmed that decision. The BIA later denied Dai’s motion to reopen the matter, prompting his appeal to the Second Circuit. Dai’s motion to reopen was based upon alleged increased harassment and abuse that he faced in China based upon his Christianity, and the Second Circuit agreed with him that there were several flaws with the BIA’s decision (although it ultimately affirmed it): 

For example, it concluded that Dai”“failed to establish that conditions in China and, more specifically, his home province of Fujian, have changed fundamentally since his merits hearing” (emphasis added), when Dai’s home province is Zhejiang. It stated that there was no evidence in the record that any increase in China’s harassment and abuse against Christians around the Beijing Olympics had continued after the Olympics when the Congressional–Executive Commission on China’s 2009 report explicitly stated that the “pre-Olympics campaign against Protestant activists and unregistered congregations in 2008 showed few signs of abatement in 2009.” Its decision to discount a letter from Dai’s friend Hong who lived in Ouhai District, Wenzhou City because Dai lived in Lucheng District, Wenzhou City and the two “never resided in the same city or district” and thus did not explain how they knew each other was arbitrary, given that Lucheng District and Ouhai District are neighboring districts within the same city.[FN1] And its suggestion that Dai “does [not] have to attend a ‘mega-church’ or the like” to practice Catholicism may be an inappropriate instruction about how Christians in China should tailor their religious practices to avoid persecution. 

The footnote in this block quote stated:

This fact is readily verifiable by searching for a map of “Wenzhou City, China” on http://maps.google.com/. See Burger v. Gonzales, 498 F.3d 131, 134 (2d Cir.2007) (citing the Federal Rules of Evidence for the proposition that judicially noticed facts must be not “subject to reasonable dispute” in that they are either “generally known” or “capable of accurate and ready determination by resort to sources whose accuracy cannot reasonably be questioned.”).

Now, maybe this is the wrong place to bring this up because I’m pretty sure that Google Maps isn’t wrong concerning the fact that Lucheng District and Ouhai District are neighboring districts, but is Google Maps generally really a source whose accurately cannot reasonably be questioned? I would argue that the answer is “no,” and it seems as if Google agrees.

Indeed, check out this “Help” page from Google:

Contact Us

We appreciate your help in improving the Google Earth database. If possible, please include the address or latitude and longitude of the specific area where you’ve found a problem. This will help us find a solution more quickly. While you won’t receive a personal response, rest assured that we’ll investigate your report.

Depending on the type of error you’ve found, you may be able edit the map yourself on Google Map Maker. Try making changes on Map Maker or learn more about getting started with Map Maker. You can use Map Maker to edit features in the 187 countries and regions listed here.

Doesn’t this reveal that the accuracy of Google Maps can be questioned and that Google even encourages it and allows users to make changes (of questionable accuracy)?

-CM