conservative playbook
  • Home
  • Opinions
  • News
  • Videos
  • Contact
  • Home
  • Opinions
  • News
  • Videos
  • Contact
Conservative Playbook
No Result
View All Result
Learn more about RevenueStripe...
Home News
Lawsuit Challenges Cops' Ability to Search Private Lands Without Warrant

Lawsuit Challenges Cops’ Ability to Search Private Lands Without Warrant

by Bob Unruh
December 18, 2021

Buy precious metals to protect your wealth. Pick your style: Goldco offers options. Our Gold Guy has no frills.

A new lawsuit has been filed in state court in Pennsylvania challenging the practice that law enforcement officers can search private lands and property – at will – without a warrant.

Article by Bob Unruh from our news partners at WND News Center.

The case is being brought on behalf of the Punxsutawney Hunting Club and the Pitch Pine Hunting Club against the Pennsylvania Game Commission and commission officer Mark Gritzer by the Institute for Justice.

The legal team explained the problem:

Imagine spending July Fourth with family in the beautiful forests of the Allegheny Mountains. You’re sitting on the porch on private land, enjoying the peace and quiet and making memories. Then, a man storms up out of nowhere and says he’s been watching you for days with binoculars from a hidden spot on your property. Most people would call the cops. But in this story, the intruder was a cop—specifically, a Pennsylvania Game Commission officer surveilling Pitch Pine Hunting Club member Jon Mikesell without permission and without a warrant.

The IJ reported the situation “is one of countless examples of wildlife officers snooping around on private land. Pitch Pine Hunting Club and its neighbor, Punxsutawney Hunting Club, have experienced these intrusions for years. Wildlife officers think they can get away with it due to an arcane legal rule called the ‘open fields’ doctrine, under which private land gets no constitutional protection from warrantless searches.”

“These clubs are private places where generations of hunters have come to spend quality time with their sons, fathers and close friends,” said IJ Attorney Joshua Windham. “If Pennsylvania wildlife officers want to snoop around property that is so plainly private, they need to get a warrant.”

The clubs have been around for generations, and the filing explained their properties are marked with “no trespassing” notices. All members are required to follow all laws and regulations.

Whatever they throw at us next, be ready. Dr. Zelenko’s new Z-DTox makes your immune system clean, resilient, and resistant.

“Members of the public recognize that the club is private property and do not enter unless invited,” it explains.

Club president Frank Stockdale said, “People should feel secure on private property. They should feel like they have privacy and seclusion. But the Pennsylvania Game Commission is making us feel the opposite—we feel invaded.”

“There are certain things you think you have as a property owner. You have No Trespassing signs, you expect privacy, and yet this guy’s walking in camo on your property like he owns the place,” Jon Mikesell said. “Do we have any rights?”

It was a state court that ruled in 2007 that the state’s ban on warrantless searches does not apply to private land.

The IJ said, “This flatly misreads the Pennsylvania Constitution, which has unique text protecting ‘possessions’—including private land—from such intrusions.”

The court ruling “was wrong,” IJ Attorney James Knight said. “Pennsylvania’s constitutional text and history make clear that private land deserves strong protection from warrantless intrusions—and we intend to prove it.”

The clubs are suing under Article I, Section 8 of the Pennsylvania Constitution. They are seeking a declaratory judgment that the statutes authorizing wildlife officers to conduct warrantless searches of their land are unconstitutional, and an order enjoining the Pennsylvania Game Commission from conducting future warrantless searches.

“A victory here would have an impact far beyond the hunting context,” IJ Attorney Daniel Nelson said. “It would reestablish core constitutional protections for private landowners throughout Pennsylvania.”

State officers, however, regularly “enter private land without probable cause or any suspicion that a crime is being committed to search for evidence of potential state hunting offenses.”

Landowners are not notified of those searches, the lawsuit said.

“During these warrantless searches, the commission’s wildlife officers sometimes roam around private land for hours looking for evidence of potential state hunting offenses,” but that destroys the privacy of the property.

Gritzer, in fact, is accused of concealing himself on the property, using camo, and watching residents with binoculars for days at a time.

The clubs, therefore, “are not able to offer their members the full degree of privacy from unwanted intruders that members expect,” and, “many of the petitioners’ members have reported experiencing anxiety over the fact that wildlife officers can surveil them, follow them around, or stop them…”

The practice also is “dangerous,” the filing explains. “Petitioners do not want their members to accidentally shoot a wildlife officer while hunting simply because they were unaware of the officer’s presence.”



They’re Trying to Shut Us Down

Over the last several months, I’ve lost count of how many times the powers-that-be have tried to shut us down. They’ve sent hackers at us, forcing us to take extreme measures on web security. They sent attorneys after us, but thankfully we’re not easily intimidated by baseless accusations or threats. They’ve even gone so far as to make physical threats. Those can actually be a bit worrisome but Remington has me covered.

For us to continue to deliver the truth that Americans need to read and hear, we ask you, our amazing audience, for financial assistance. We just launched a GiveSendGo page to help us pay the bills. It’s brand new so don’t be discouraged by the lack of donations there. It’s a funny reality that the fewer the donations that have been made, the less likely people are willing to donate to it. One would think this is counterintuitive, but sometimes people are skeptical because they think that perhaps there’s a reason others haven’t been donating. In our situation, we’re just getting started so please don’t be shy if you have the means to help.

Thank you and God bless!

JD Rucker


All ORIGINAL content on this site is © 2021 NOQ Report. All REPUBLISHED content has received direct or implied permission for reproduction.

With that said, our content may be reproduced and distributed as long as it has a link to the original source and the author is credited prominently. We don’t mind you using our content as long as you help out by giving us credit with a prominent link. If you feel like giving us a tip for the content, we will not object!

JD Rucker – EIC
@jdrucker


 

Tags: Law EnforcementTop StoryWND News Center

Bypass Big Tech Censors



My Shows

The JD Rucker Show (Rumble)
The JD Rucker Podcast (Apple)
Red State Talk Radio (M-F 2pm ET)
America Out Loud (M-F 7pm ET)
America First Report (Substack)
The Late Prepper (Substack)
End Medical Tyranny (Substack)

Our Sponsors

 
MyPillow Promo Code NOQ

MyPatriotSupply

Z-Stack Life

Our Gold Guy
 
Valley Food
 

Shows

Biden-Harris Regime "Failures"

Council for Inclusive Capitalism

Fighting Inflation

Arrest the Teachers

Controlled Demolition of Biden

Are We Under Attack

Bypass Big Tech Censors

Copyright © 2021 NOQ Report.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • Opinions
  • News
  • Videos
  • Contact

© 2020 NOQ Report

Session expired

Please log in again. The login page will open in a new tab. After logging in you can close it and return to this page.

>