Wildlife Agents Placed a Camera on His Property Without a Warrant, Then Raided His Home

quote:

---

Hollingsworth had been ensnared by a longstanding practice in which state and federal wildlife agencies intrude on clearly marked private property, and in some cases set up cameras, without permission from the property owner. Thanks to a series of court rulings stemming from Prohibition, the practice is legal. But it means that agents of the state can not only enter private property at their whim but install warrantless surveillance systems that can be used to incriminate individuals for activities on their own property.

That's how Hollingsworth ended up not only being arrested, but fined, stripped of his hunting license, and sentenced to probation after his home was searched by armed state wildlife agents. Hollingsworth's case illustrates an overlooked limitation to Fourth Amendment protections, in which nominally private property quietly becomes a tool of state surveillance.

---