The state Supreme Court has handed property owners an important affirmation of what posted private property means – it’s private and the gendarmes need a warrant, based on probable cause, to enter and search it.
“The decision is in favor of a pair of western Pennsylvania hunting clubs,” reports the Pennsylvania Capital-Star. “They challenged the constitutionality of two provisions in the Game and Wildlife Code that permitted state game wardens to enter private land, but not homes or buildings, without warrants.”
From the state high court’s ruling:
“Article I, Section 8, [of the state Constitution] provides Pennsylvania citizens with greater protection than the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution as it relates to the open fields of any landowner that has demonstrated a reasonable expectation of privacy by taking sufficient steps to exclude intruders therefrom.
“Accordingly, the [state Game] Commission’s officers, employees, and representatives, as well as any other government officials, must obtain a warrant based upon probable cause or satisfy one of the recognized exceptions to the warrant requirement before entering such property,” the court ruled.
The Institute for Justice, a public interest law firm, represented the hunting clubs in the challenge. Joshua Windham, a senior attorney there, told the Capital-Star that the ruling affirms “that private land is not public property.”
“It’s yours, and that means you get to decide who enters it. If government officials want to invade your posted land without your consent and spy on you, they need to get a warrant,” period, he said.
In our ever-expanding government-surveilled world, how refreshing it is to see the rule of law – and posted private-land privacy – upheld.
It’s public policy at its best.
Colin McNickle is communications and marketing director at the Allegheny Institute for Public Policy (cmcnickle@alleghenyinstitute.org).
