Highlander's lawsuit against DWR, filed earlier this month, challenges a nearly 100-year-old Supreme Court ruling that Fourth Amendment protections against warrantless searches and seizures do not apply to open fields, even if they are surrounded by fences or no trespassing signs. A few states have extended Fourth Amendment protections to privately owned land beyond the curtilage of a home, but Virginia is not among them.
“Part of what this case wants to do is to establish the principle that no trespassing signs should apply to government agents too,” Gay said.