color of law
Accomplished Advocate
If you mean they cannot enter the curtilage of ones home then I agree. The problem is these officers are not trained in the law as to what their legal authority is. They don't understand hunting in KY is that the only thing that is regulated is hunting as a sport. Hunting for food to feed yourself and/or family is constitutional.Fish and wildlife officers can't enter a dwelling or loiter around in ones yard.
But they can , definitely, cross property lines at will in the performance of their duties.
Example. You are poaching deer on your own land . Fish and wildlife officer in ky, can , has many times , and usually will , enter your land , arrest you, confiscate your firearm and vehicle if your using a vehicle .
Used to happen all the time in Lewis county especially. Been challenged in court countless times. Challenges all lost. Pretty much settled here.
Now all that said. Poaching isn't the problem here it used to be. Mostly now a Game Warden won't be on private property unless called to be for a reason.
KRS 150.015
(1) The declared purpose of Acts 1952, ch. 200, and the policy of the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is to protect and conserve the wildlife of this Commonwealth so as to insure a permanent and continued supply of the wildlife resources of this state for the purpose of furnishing sport and recreation for the present and for the future residents of this state;
Go read KRS 150.170(7) "Landowners, their spouses or dependent children...who kill or trap on their lands any wildlife causing damage to the lands or any personal property situated thereon shall not be required to have a hunting or trapping license and may do so during periods other than the open season for the particular species without a tag and dispose of the carcass on-site."
These wardens don't have the power they think they have.
Look, of the thousands of cases I've read many losses are because the attorney made the wrong argument because s/he did not understand the subject matter. And to be truthful the attorney really isn't going to defend you; collecting a fee is the real purpose.