Warrant Needed If DNR, EGLE Want To Look Around, Says House

(Source: MIRS.news, Published 11/05/2025) The Departments of Natural Resources and Environment, Great Lakes & Energy would need court-issued warrants to search property regardless of the search’s environmental protection intentions, under two bills that both passed 63-37 in the House Tuesday

Rep. Dave Prestin (R-Cedar River)’s HB 4073 applies to the DNR and Rep. Tom Kunse (R-Clare)’s HB 4421 applies to EGLE. Kunse said in his floor speech that the right to private property is not a vague theory, and that the founders of the country knew that a free people cannot remain free if the government controlled where they live or what they can do on their property.

“We all share in the duty to protect the environment. And clean air and clean water and responsible stewardship are values that all Michiganders can agree on. But we cannot take these goals and use them to erase our constitutional rights,” Kunse said.

Kunse said it is the right of the property owner to determine who has access, and EGLE is claiming they have the authority to go onto private property without a warrant.

“I shouldn’t have to be standing before you today, but I am because the state needs to correct a wrong that has gone on for generations,” Prestin said.

Prestin said the “wrong” is to “completely disregard the Fourth Amendment and property rights by the DNR.”

Prestin said the Open Fields doctrine has been used by the DNR to go wherever they want on property as long as it’s not too close to a home, but he argued it infringes on property and privacy rights of Michiganders for the mere crime of trying to enjoy their own property.

“You would be hard-pressed to find even a single American that is in support of unreasonable or warrantless searches and seizures of property,” said Rep. Penelope Tsernoglou (D-East Lansing) in a floor speech in opposition of the bills. “Yet, as legislators, we must engage in debate based on facts and realities, not wishful thinking.”

Tsernoglou said the issue has been settled by the U.S. Supreme Court, which has stated that individuals cannot expect privacy for activities in the open, except in the area immediately surrounding their home. She said any searches conducted by the DNR under the Open Fields doctrine are completely justified by previous SCOTUS rulings.

The House also passed HB 4861 by Rep. Pat Outman (R-Six Lakes), which exempts candidates that are running for a non-partisan office from having to designate themselves by party affiliation when filling out their affidavit of identity. It passed 100-0.

Rep. Sarah Lightner (R-Springport)’s HB 4840 passed 99-1. It ensures that litigation between owners of private corporations would be assigned to business courts rather than general courts.

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