....
Because, as I stated, the person was told no and then detected anyway, thus receiving some sort of "citation" from LEO. Rather than face a life sentence in San Quentin, I suggested that they then challenge the "citation" in a Court of Law, which would then set precedent......
Flies-only, there's multiple things at-play here. And ... to answer you, is not a "rant". It's to answer . Not sure how that qualifies as a "rant", any-more-so than you posting is a "rant" . I mean ... isn't the purpose of hobbyist forums , like this, to get inputs, pro's /con's, etc... ? Hence no need to get "testy" here.
Ok : If someone has received an actual ticket, then .... sure ... "challenge it in court". It thought you were saying to take any random "scram" or "stinkeye" and go "challenge it in court". Forgive my mis-understanding.
But ... sure ...: I have heard of a case where someone got a ticket (in the city of San Francisco city parks). He took his piddly $90 ticket (for 'defacing' ?) to the appeals. It was sort of like a traffic ticket, where he waited in the "cattle call" lineup , on the appointed day. When his turn came, he got about 15 seconds into his planned explanation (ie.: "I was doing no harm, I dunno what this is all about, I was only metal detecting...." etc... ). But before he could even finish, the judge banged the gavel and said "dismissed". haha. So the fellow xeroxed off the rubber stamped "dismissed" paperwork, and passed it out to some friends. For if any busy-body ever said anything to them in that city. To my knowledge though, that never happened.
On the other hand, I also heard of another fellow who got a ticket , for state property (it was a known sensitive historic monument). But he wasn't actually detecting. He'd only been on nearby PRIVATE land, but was taking a shortcut, back to his vehicle, across the state park monument area, with the detector slung over his shoulder.
He tried to explain to the ranger, but .... to no avail. Later, he received his ticket in the mail. It was something on the order of $150 ish (?). Since he lived several hours away, it simply wasn't worth his time to take time off work and fight it. So he just paid it. And actually got a good laugh out of it thinking: If this is all I ever had to pay, for all the places I've hunted and things I've found, then so-be-it, haha.
But ... anyhow, Now I understand that you meant: An actual ticket. Not just isolated scrams.
And back to the original conversation : All laws and rules are printed/known somewhere. They can be looked up. There's no "secret rules" or "secret laws". And the trouble with asking someone "Can I metal detect?", is it risks that someone potentially answers "no", on some silly arbitrary basis, that has no bearing on actual practical application.