I see Professor Schaff is not very keen on the abolition of the Open Fields Doctrine, which allows Game, Fish & Parks officials unqualified access to landowners' property. Repealing the doctrine doesn't worry me very much. The bill that passed the Senate allows government officials to enter private property if they have "probable cause," after all, so the state can still poke around if they have a reason. This is, broadly speaking, a question of balancing individual and property rights on the one hand and generalized community rights, i.e. giving the government the power to snoop around for game law violations, on the other hand. The fears, apparently, are that either individual citizens will abuse game laws on their private property without detection (the argument of the advocates of the Open Fields Doctrine) or that the sovereign and its agents will abuse their unqualified power to trespass on private property (the argument of the abolitionists). Forced to choose, I guess I'd be more concerned about the sovereign abusing its power. But hey, I'm open to hearing the other side.
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