Are warrantless searches unconstitutional?
Should government agents be allowed to enter private property on a whim and without a warrant?
That could be the ultimate question answered in a case where a forester and wildlife biologist is challenging the common practice of Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) enforcement agents who enter private property to search for potential hunting violations, with neither probable cause nor a warrant. It could possibly be a case that sets legal precedent.
No Probable Cause
For more than three decades, Tom Manuel has been working as a forester, wildlife biologist/wildlife manager for clients in Louisiana and Mississippi. His love of the outdoors led to his choice of occupation. For more than 20 years, he and his wife, Phyllis, have owned and managed about 240 acres near his hometown of Ethel in East Feliciana Parish.
“The main goal is timber management,” Manuel said. “That’s why we have it, but then we hunt, sometimes target practice, we camp, ride four-wheelers, take walks, ride bikes, birdwatching.”
The entrance to Manuel’s property is at the end of a gravel parish road near Ethel, which is why the Manuels call their forest the End of the Road Tree Farm. It is where they have enjoyed time with their son and daughter for many years and now the empty-nesters spend time on the property walking or birdwatching together. During hunting season, Manuel legally hunts game.
Manuel said in his career, he has worked with LDWF, holds no animosity toward it and appreciates and supports the goals of the department. He knows several of its biologists, for which he has respect, “I know they’re good people and dedicated biologists.”
However, in December two encounters with LDWF enforcement agents led to Manuel filing a lawsuit against the department for entering his property without a warrant or probable cause, a right he and the Institute for Justice say is protected by the Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article I Section 5 of the Louisiana Constitution.
Close Encounters
Manuel said he has had several encounters with LDWF enforcement agents over the decades he has hunted and fished in Louisiana, most of which have been good, he said. But in the two decades he’s owned the property, he’s never seen wildlife enforcement agents on his property until December 2023.
While hunting deer in his forest, Manuel usually leaves the gate to his property open, drives about an eighth of a mile down his forest road and parks his truck well out of sight from the public road. Near the property’s entrance, and easily visible from the road, is a large “No Trespassing” sign fixed to a large tree.
That day, Manuel didn’t kill anything; he didn’t even shoot, he said. But when he walked back to his truck, an LDWF enforcement agent was parked behind his truck.
Manuel expected to be questioned by the agent, he said, but wasn’t concerned because he “wasn’t doing anything wrong.”
“I said let me put my gun in the truck and I’ll come talk to you,” Manuel said. “Then he asked me if the gun was unloaded. I told him no, it was loaded. I said I’ll unload it and put it in the truck. He said, ‘No, why don’t you give it to me.’ I said, excuse me?”
The agent told Manuel he would unload the gun.
“I said, ‘No sir, this is my land and this is my gun, my rifle, and I have every right to it. I’m not giving it to you,’ ” Manuel said. “I said I’m going to unload it, put it in my truck and then we’ll talk.”
After being questioned by the agent, who determined Manuel was in compliance with hunting regulations, the landowner had questions of his own.
The forester and wildlife biologist explained to the agent about his occupation and expressed concern the agent was not respecting his property rights.
“I said ‘Why don’t you wait at the gate for people?’ ” Manuel said. “He said that if he had to wait at the gate, he would never be able to catch anyone.”
Manuel then asked the agent what was the probable cause for entering his property. The agent told him, “The mere fact that you’re hunting is all the probable cause I need.”
Manuel questioned whether the agent knew anyone was hunting because all that could be seen from the road was the open gate and the No Trespassing sign.
“Hunting is not illegal,” Manuel said. “He’s assuming I’m doing something that is perfectly legal. That’s not probable cause.”
Manuel explained that if the agent had probable cause, he could bring that information to a judge and get a search warrant to enter the property.
“He said, ‘That would make my job too difficult,’” Manuel said.
The exchange ended peaceably. Though irritated and left with the feeling the agent didn’t like the exchange, Manuel said he didn’t intend to complain to authorities ... until it happened again three weeks later.
On Dec. 30, 2023, Manuel killed a deer on his property in the morning and used the state’s electronic deer tagging system to report the harvest. That same afternoon, Manuel’s brother went hunting on the property. When the brother returned to nearly the same spot where Manuel’s encounter occurred, two LDWF enforcement agents were waiting.
“When it happened again, it seemed like harassment at that point,” he said.
Being a wildlife manager, Manuel said he supports the tagging system for game. He knows some of the biologists who gather and report on the data and supports their work. It gives the biologists a good count on what game is harvested.
“It also seems like the enforcement side of Wildlife and Fisheries might be using that as a tool against people,” he said. “I don’t know that, but I know that I sent my data in and that afternoon two more game wardens came inside my property again.”
Institute for Justice
Manuel discovered the Institute for Justice (IJ) while researching similar property rights issues, including a Tennessee case the Arlington, Virginia-based non-profit law firm handled. A Tennessee appellate court ruled in May in favor of the plaintiffs and ruled the statute allowing Tennessee Wildlife Resource Agency enforcement agents to enter private property unconstitutional.
James Knight II is one of the IJ attorneys handling Manuel’s case, which they took immediately after talking to and visiting with Manuel. His experience in forestry and wildlife biology made him an ideal spokesman for such a case, he said.
“He cares about hunting laws and wants to see them enforced,” Knight said. “He just wants to see them enforced in a way that’s consistent with the Constitution.
These cases, he said, IJ handles to help protect people’s constitutional rights, including its Fourth Amendment Project, pertaining to the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“Those protections are some of our strongest guarantees against government interference with private property,” Knight said. “However, unfortunately, particularly on the federal level, those protections have been eroded somewhat over time.”
Much of the erosion started in a century-old ruling during Prohibition that came to be known as the “Open Fields Doctrine,” Knight said. That ruling is what LDWF enforcement uses to enter private property without a warrant, along with Louisiana’s statute stating the department practically has free reign. The U.S. Supreme Court ruling written by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes allowed warrantless searches of private property outside of the curtilage, the area immediately surrounding a dwelling.
“It also happened as a result of the war on drugs (in the 1980s),” Knight said. “In both cases it was felt there was a need to bypass the constitutional protections in order to have a little expediency in enforcing the law. We are of course in favor of enforcing the law, but the law should be enforced in a way that’s consistent with the Constitution and with constitutional rights.”
That’s what regular law enforcement officers do every day, Knight said, and it’s what wildlife enforcement agents should do as well.
“Game wardens are trying to enforce hunting laws in part on private property in Louisiana, but the way they can do that is they can get probable cause to believe that a crime is actually occurring and get a warrant, just like police would have to do if they thought a crime was happening in your house,” Knight said.
Knight says IJ believes the Open Fields Doctrine is wrong even for the federal constitution, but the state constitution is unambiguous.
“The Louisiana Constitution is stronger in that it protects all property from warrantless searches and land is property,” he said.
Louisiana protects all property, Knight said. It is not selective like the federal rulings have been.
“The purpose of constitutional rights is to ensure that liberty is protected from government interference,” Knight said. “And I think the drafters of the Louisiana Constitution were perfectly clear that you can search or seize property, but you need to get a warrant first. ...
“I think Wildlife and Fisheries gotten people used to it violating the constitution over the years. The Louisiana Supreme Court actually ruled in 1978 that the Open Fields Doctrine that they are relying on to enter land like Tom’s without a warrant does not apply in Louisiana.”
The ruling has never been reversed, Knight said, but it also hasn’t been revisited. Since that time, he said either Wildlife and Fisheries has forgotten about the ruling or just ignored it.
Retribution?
Before deciding whether to file the lawsuit, Manuel said he talked to several of his Louisiana clients, all private timberland owners. He didn’t want them to think he was doing anything inappropriate. The response, he said, was strong support from every client he approached.
“Most of them had negative stories about our local game wardens,” he said.
But that wasn’t Manuel’s only concern.
In 2019, Manuel and several other hunters were invited to a dove hunt on the property of someone else. As he was about to leave, wildlife enforcement agents descended on the property. About seven agents, some in camouflage gilly suits had been watching the hunters all morning, he said.
Manuel was told the field was baited, though he never saw bait on the ground anywhere near him.
“If I had seen a kernel of corn or a sunflower seed or something, I would have left. I’m more petrified of getting a migratory bird violation than anything else.”
Everyone on the hunt was ticketed. Manuel said he hasn’t been prosecuted. That, he said, is something he suspects could come back to haunt him as he fights for property rights.
Still, his resolve is just as strong as his clients’ support. He said one of the sadder points in all this is that his state is teaching enforcement agents to ignore constitutional rights.
“That’s my issue,” Manuel said. “My state is training people to come out and do unconstitutional, unwarranted searches on our land and I don’t think that’s right.”
After calls and emails to different people within LDWF, Communications Director Taylor Brazan responded with an email stating “This case is a pending legal matter, and as such, we are unable to provide public comment due to the sensitivity of it.”
A follow-up email seeking comment on general training of agents wasn’t answered.
コメント