House passes bills to curb DNR’s warrantless property searches

The Michigan House this week passed bills that aim to require the Michigan Department of Natural Resources to get a warrant before entering private property.

State Rep. Tom Kunse, R-Clare, co-sponsored House bills 4073 and 4421 that aim to force officers from the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy to get a warrant before conducting inspections or investigations on private land.

Each bill passed by a vote of 63-37.

Law enforcement agencies statewide typically must have a warrant or probable cause to enter private property, but searches by the natural resources agency fall into a constitutional loophole known as the Open Fields Doctrine. The department says this lets its agents access private property without permission or a warrant.

The DNR did not respond to a request for comment.

State Rep. Dave Prestin, R-Cedar River, welcomed the vote.

Prestin’s bill would require the DNR to obtain a search warrant before accessing private property, ending a decades-old practice of the DNR entering first and asking questions later.

Prestin listed incidents where community members contacted him after the DNR trespassed onto their property because of gunshots, alleged animal baiting and other reasons. Constituents have reported conservation officers wearing plain clothes, repeatedly entering private property without notifying the property owners, and repeatedly cutting locks to enter private property without giving notice and never compensating the property owner for damages.

In April, Kunse told Michigan Capitol Confidential that he would sponsor a bill requiring the DNR and EGLE to follow the Fourth Amendment based on a CapCon story about two men who are facing up to $25,000 in daily fines under Michigan’s wetland laws. State employees allegedly trespassed on their land.

“This bill simply requires the department to put it on paper: Knock on the door or get a warrant,” Prestin said. “The DNR will still be able to protect our public resources without infringing on the rights of the public. They should observe the same best practices as every other law enforcement agency in our state.”

The plan passed the House with bipartisan support.

“The DNR insists that they only enter with probable cause, but that is just a flat-out lie,” Prestin said in a press release. “They never bother to explain to anyone what their ‘probable cause’ was, because in most instances, it came from an anonymous 1-800 tip line that serves as a convenient method for conservation officers to weaponize neighbor and land disputes. The experiences my constituents share often have common themes, like the DNR hopping your fence, cutting your lock, placing surveillance cameras, and walking 60 to 80 acres onto your land despite ‘no trespassing’ signs, with no warrant, no permission, and most often without you even knowing that they were there.”

The bills, if passed by the Senate and signed into law, would restore basic constitutional protections, Kunse said.

“No government agency should have the power to walk onto someone’s property without permission or a warrant,” said Kunse. “These bills restore a basic constitutional protection and make sure state agencies operate with the same accountability as local law enforcement.”

Currently, DNR and EGLE officials can conduct inspections or investigations on private property without a warrant. House bills 4073 and 4421 would create explicit legal requirements.

In March, a federal judge ruled that a separate lawsuit against environmental quality analyst Justin Smith and inspector Brian Marshall could proceed. The lawsuit accused Smith and Marshall of violating one man’s Fourth Amendment rights in March 2024 by trespassing on a separate piece of property he owns along M-13 just south of Pinconning.