Army veteran Dalton Boley has a paradise in Killen near the Tennessee state line. His next-door neighbor owns 10 acres of woodland, and she licenses the space behind her home to him. But Boley has intruders.
Game wardens from the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources invite themselves onto the property whenever they want. They come and go as they please without a warrant, permission, or urgent need.
It makes no difference that the owner has never hunted or received a citation on her land. Boley has a clean record also. He mostly uses the property for camping and recreation with his three young sons. But he cut back on these activities when he discovered the surveillance.
“I do not know who has videos or pictures of my kids,” he says in a recorded interview. “And that is scary.”
“No trespassing” signs do not help. The wardens step around them to enter the land, surrounded by residential properties clearly marked with fences and gates.
“No part of this land is easily accessible,” Boley says. “You would have to fight your way through something in order to get there or be hopping a fence.”
The U.S. Supreme Court allows this. A 1924 opinion, Hester v. United States, gives the government sweeping powers to invade any section of land away from homes and other buildings. This misguided precedent, which spawned the open fields doctrine, exposes at least 96% of all private land in the U.S. to warrantless searches.
Alabama piles on with its own statute, which gives wildlife officials a green light to enter “any land or water in the performance of their duty” without constraint. What state lawmakers overlook is the Alabama Constitution, a stubborn document that trumps anything passed in Montgomery.
The Alabama Constitution, unlike the U.S. Constitution (on which Open Fields Doctrine was based), expressly protects “possessions” from unreasonable searches. And land is a possession. For many property owners, land is their most sacred possession.
The game wardens took this away from Boley. “Nature was my way to decompress and get away from things after being in the military,” he says. “Now I feel like I can’t even do that.”
Rather than give up their rights, Boley and the landowner, Regina Williams, sued the state on May 20, 2025, in the Circuit Court of Lauderdale County. Dale Liles, who owns and leases about 86 acres in Muscle Shoals, joined them in the case. Our public interest law firm, the Institute for Justice, represents them.
Litigation should not be necessary. Seven states have rejected the open fields doctrine. Two of these states, Tennessee and Mississippi, did so because their constitutions protect “possessions” from unreasonable searches.
In a previous case from our firm, the Tennessee Court of Appeals held that because land that is either clearly marked or actively used qualifies as a “possession,” Tennessee wardens must get a warrant before entering someone’s land without consent.
Alabama property owners have the same right to be secure on their land.
The open fields doctrine must go. It was intrusive 100 years ago during Prohibition, when officers hid in the bushes to catch moonshiners. Things have gotten worse since then. Advancing technology now allows 24/7 digital surveillance, which occurs in some parts of the nation.
Landowner Terry Rainwaters discovered this the hard way when he found government spy cameras hidden in the trees on his rural property in Tennessee. Members of the Punxsutawney Hunting Club also learned a spy camera had been placed on their land in Pennsylvania.
The Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources did something different to Josh Highlander. Instead of installing their own camera, officers snuck onto his land and seized his trail camera without telling him.
Even without this type of warrantless intrusion, trespassing on someone’s land without their knowledge is dangerous – especially in places where people might be hunting. If game wardens want to risk it, they should bring evidence of probable cause to a judge and get a signature.
Otherwise, the government should leave private property owners alone. Their homes are their castles, and so is their land.
Suranjan Sen is an attorney and Joshua Windham is a senior attorney at the Institute for Justice in Arlington, Va.
The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the policy or position of 1819 News. To comment, please send an email with your name and contact information to [email protected].
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