Joseph Russo Jr. had "no trespassing" signs posted along the perimeter of his remote northeastern Pennsylvania hunting camp, but they failed to keep out at least one unwelcome visitor: a state game officer.

Acting on a tip, the officer walked onto Russo's property without a search warrant, found evidence the hunter had illegally baited a bear and slapped him with a citation. Russo wound up paying $3,600 in fines and restitution.

Now the state Supreme Court is taking up the case, agreeing to hear Russo's claim that the Pennsylvania Game Commission's search-and-seizure practices run afoul of the state constitution.

"We don't allow police to search houses because they think there might be drugs in there without a warrant. It's the same thing here," said Andrew Bigda, Russo's attorney.

At issue is a state law that permits game officers to go onto private property without a warrant — even if the property is posted with no trespassing signs. Bigda said the law violates the state constitution's guarantee against unreasonable searches.

A state appeals court sided with the game commission earlier this year, noting that "if Russo's position were the law in our Commonwealth, criminals could very easily carry on illegal enterprises by merely placing 'No Trespassing' signs" around their property.

The commission contends that if wildlife officers had to get a warrant before entering posted property, poachers and other violators would go uncaught and unpunished.

"Clearly, we have individuals who post their land, set out bait and illegally kill wildlife," said the commission's chief counsel, William Pouss. "And I think it stands to reason that if it was held that (the state constitution) allowed that sort of thing, it would become more prevalent."

After Russo killed the bear near his Wyoming County hunting cabin on Nov. 25, 2002, he brought it to a game commission station in Dallas, as required by law. Later that day, the commission sent an officer to his property to check out a tip that Russo had baited the bear.

The officer walked up Russo's 600-foot driveway and spotted a large pile of apple mash about 90 feet from the cabin. Bear blood and tissue recovered from the mash pile helped convict Russo of illegally baiting the animal.

Russo declined comment. Bigda said his client continues to maintain that he did not bait the bear.

Bigda said his research has turned up case law from other states, including New York, Vermont, Oregon, Montana and Washington, in which evidence was suppressed because police had gone onto posted, private land without search warrants.

Most of those cases involved drug seizures, not game violations, but Bigda said the principle remains the same. In two states, Kentucky and New Hampshire, courts have sided with the police, he said.

In agreeing last week to take the case, the Supreme Court said it would decide whether the state constitution "provides a landowner with a reasonable expectation of privacy in his posted property."

State courts have previously found that the Pennsylvania Constitution affords greater privacy rights than the U.S. Constitution.