The US constitution was an agreement among the states to delegate power to a federal government. State governments had absolute power. Any powers not specifically delegated to the newly created federal government through the constitution were obviously retained by the states.
Incorporation doctrine after the 14th amendment is just an extension of the federal government saying "well if states agreed to the 14th amendment and the 14th amendment says privileges and immunities of us citizens can't be infringed, then the states are logically giving up whatever extra powers they held previously to not respect rights enumerated in the constitution". It's a bit dubious but it helped clean up the mess of slavery.
The point being that prior to Incorporation, the bill of rights was irrelevant to states. State governments didn't have to respect your right to free speech or guns or jury trials or anything (unless the constitution of that state required it to). So game wardens had plenty of power. Incorporation doctrine has had a long, messy history and it's possible that no one has specifically challenged game wardens power in the right way to trigger a review of it constitutionally.
Incorporation doctrine after the 14th amendment is just an extension of the federal government saying "well if states agreed to the 14th amendment and the 14th amendment says privileges and immunities of us citizens can't be infringed, then the states are logically giving up whatever extra powers they held previously to not respect rights enumerated in the constitution". It's a bit dubious but it helped clean up the mess of slavery.
The point being that prior to Incorporation, the bill of rights was irrelevant to states. State governments didn't have to respect your right to free speech or guns or jury trials or anything (unless the constitution of that state required it to). So game wardens had plenty of power. Incorporation doctrine has had a long, messy history and it's possible that no one has specifically challenged game wardens power in the right way to trigger a review of it constitutionally.