The short video shows three California game wardens, armed and wearing bulletproof vests, demanding to search the home of Fred Seaman while he stands around, only partly dressed. He's a falconer in California, and he has been for 30 years.
The game wardens don't have a warrant, and they don't believe they need one to enter Seaman's home. Remarkably, this is happening because Seaman is attempting to follow the law. He's a legally licensed falconer in California, and part of California's regulations grants the state's Department of Fish and Wildlife the authority to conduct unannounced inspections of any facility where falcons are being cared for.
The regulations don't require that the wardens have reasonable suspicion that the birds are being mistreated or that any sort of illegal behavior is happening. And if Seaman resists or refuses to let them in, he could lose his falconry license and be forced to surrender the birds.
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Stavrianoudakis has been in Seaman's shoes. He tells Reason that in the 1980s he had game wardens show up unannounced for an inspection. He says they suspected he might have illegally imported a falcon from Nevada to California. He hadn't. Rather than getting a warrant, they just showed up claiming this inspection authority and handcuffing him in the process.
"In short, they've created a regulation that says the Fourth Amendment doesn't apply to a citizen engaged in the sport of falconry," Stavrianoudakis says. "I'm treated no differently from a common felon on parole." He keeps Ares in his home, which means that his wife, who is not a falconer, essentially has to give up her own privacy rights as well.
That's not the only right falconers give up. This lawsuit is against both the State of California's and the United States government's Fish and Wildlife Departments, because Washington also essentially censors falconers and imposes other unreasonable restrictions. Federal regulation makes it against the law to profit off licensed birds of prey. But the law specifically targets falconers and only birds of prey, not other exotic birds. If you have a pet toucan or ostrich, cash right in. But Stavrianoudakis is banned under federal law from using his aplomado falcon, named Ares, in "movies, commercials, or in other commercial ventures that are not related to falconry." He cannot allow Ares' image to be used in logos or to endorse any product unless it's related to falconry.
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https://reason.com/blog/2018/11/16/t...-pzShQJDrzdEfA
Originally Posted by Ron Paul
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