I am pleased to have co-authored an amicus brief on behalf of the Tennessee Firearms Association and Gun Owners of America opposing the unlawful and outrageous behavior of the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency.
Read the TFA announcement and amicus brief here.
In this case, TWRA agents entered private property, without a warrant or consent, to search for evidence of hunting violations. The TWRA even went so far as to place surveillance cameras (trail cameras) to spy on the property owners on their own property!
Unfortunately, the Tennessee Attorney General’s office take the position that is acceptable because: 1) they have not done it again (“No justiciable controversy exists”); 2) supposedly the property owners had no constitutional protection to keep people off their lands or any expectation of privacy in their private, fenced, and posted lands; and 3) by hunting their own land, the property owners “voluntarily subjected themselves and their private property to inspection and regulation by the TWRA.”
It is hoped that the Tennessee Court of Appeals will see through all these arguments and affirm the trial court decision that the actions of the TWRA were unconstitutional and repugnant to the protected rights of the landowners.
