Tennessee Firearms Association and Gun Owners of America jointly filed a motion seeking permission to formally file an amicus brief (a “friend of the court” brief) with the Tennessee Court of Appeals in a case styled Terry Rainwaters, et al., v. Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency, et al., Appeal No: W2022-00514-COA-R3-CV. The proposed TFA/GOA brief is included on the TFA's news post.

The core issue in this case is whether and to what extent the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency can enter a person’s real property at any time without a warrant if it suspects that any hunting activities are taking or have taken place in the past. A state trial court previously ruled that the state statutes that TWRA relies upon for these clandestine invasions and surveillance (including placement of cameras) of private property are unconstitutional. (April 2022 trial court opinion).

The trial court ruled against the TWRA when the trial court concluded that the Legislature’s actions by enacting Tennessee Code Annotated §§ 70-1-305(1) and (7), which are the provisions that TWRA was relying upon, are facially unconstitutional because these statutory provisions “authorize unreasonable warrantless searches in violation of Article I, Section 7 of the Tennessee Constitution.”

In its appeal, TWRA argues to the Court of Appeals that “(1) Sections 70-1-305(1) and (7) are not facially unconstitutional; (2) the properties at issue are not constitutionally protected; and (3) any “search” by the TWRA officers was not unreasonable and therefore did not violate Tenn. Const. art. I, § 7.”

TFA and GOA argue in the proposed amicus brief that not only are the statutes that TWRA relies upon unconstitutional under the state constitution, as the trial court found, but that the statutes, as applied by TWRA, but that the “actions and policies of the TWRA are dangerous, resulting in an unsupportable risk of injury or liability to private citizens on private lands as well as to TWRA agents who are unlawfully present on those same private lands.”

This case and the TWRA’s policies have existed now for several years. Obviously, the Tennessee Legislature could have stepped in and addressed the issue long before now by requiring TWRA to show to a judicial officer sufficient probable cause to believe that a crime is being or has recently been committed such that a search warrant can be issued. If it did so, the Legislature would need to include enough provisions in any such proposed law to ensure that those judicial officers are going to put a priority on defending and safeguarding the personal and property rights of citizens rather than merely “rubber stamping” what the state wants to do. So far, the Legislature has not acted although at least one bill to address this problem was filed in 2021 but it was killed in the House Criminal Justice Subcommittee without a recorded vote.

If you are a TFA or GOA member and would like to support efforts by these organizations, please make sure your memberships are up to date and consider supplemental donations. If you are not a TFA or GOA member, considering joining today.

If you think that the Legislature should have never passed unconstitutional laws and/or that it should have stopped this conduct by TWRA long ago, then make sure to reach out to your legislators today and speak with them about your concerns.