The future of the Sunday hunting ban could hinge on the interpretation of a single word.
Lawyers argued Wednesday morning before the Maine Supreme Judicial Court whether Maine’s 140-year-old Sunday hunting ban is now unconstitutional based on the 2021 right-to-food amendment.
The arguments were the first public debate over the fate of Sunday hunting, and were focused exclusively on its legal standing in light of Maine passing the nation’s first right-to-food amendment. Much of the argument from both sides came down to the interpretation of the word “harvest” as it appears in the new amendment.
There are no exceptions to Sunday hunting and the law is “overly broad,” said Pamela Lee, attorney for Virginia and Joel Parker, who filed the lawsuit in 2022.
“It is a broad, sweeping and arbitrary ban without exceptions or limitations that infringes upon what is now a Constitutionally protected right,” Lee said.
The amendment gave Mainers a right to grow, harvest and produce food as long as no laws are broken and no public or private land is abused. The two sides debated the interpretation of the word “harvest,” as the word “hunting” does not appear in the amendment.
In the amendment, “harvest” is surrounded by words referencing agriculture, not hunting, Assistant Attorney General Paul Suitter said. The word commonly refers to gathering crops, and Mainers were assured the amendment would not change hunting laws by lawmakers who introduced it, he added.
Lee, meanwhile, argued that “harvest” replaced a string of words, including fishing, clamming and foraging in the amendment, which is designed to encompass them all, including hunting.
While the right-to-food amendment established people’s rights, they are still subject to regulation, Justice Joseph Jabar said. Those regulations include hunting seasons and licensing.
But Lee countered that regulations such as established hunting seasons and licenses are not unconstitutional because the right-to-food amendment forbids poaching, which is used to protect natural resources. A Sunday hunting ban, however, does not protect natural resources the same way, Jared Bornstein, executive director of Maine Hunters United for Sunday Hunting, said after the arguments.
Suitter argued against Sunday hunting by explaining that while the poaching exception can be used to regulate how many deer can be taken to protect natural resources, it could not be used to create any type of exception, such as saying only people between the ages of 25 and 45 can hunt.
Lastly, Suitter argued that wildlife in Maine is not owned by any one person, but is instead owned by the people. He said that means Maine’s Legislature can update hunting laws to create any changes it wants, and has done so numerous times. In May, the Legislature rejected four bills to allow Sunday hunting.
Virginia and Joel Parker filed the lawsuit in Kennebec County in April 2022 against the Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife, arguing that Sunday hunting is legal because of the new amendment. The Parkers have five children and rely on hunting to help feed their family, and can only hunt together one day a week with the current laws.
Kennebec Superior Court was essentially “punting” the case to the supreme court to make a decision when it was dismissed in November 2022, Justice Andrew Mead said. The superior court dismissed the case as the attorney general’s office requested and the Parkers appealed.
The supreme court justices heard the arguments before an auditorium of students at Winthrop High School. The justices can decide the constitutionality of the ban, or they can send the case back to the superior court to hear the case.
If there is a rational basis for the Sunday hunting ban, the Parkers lose their case, Jabar said. Lee agreed.
A decision is expected in the next two or three months.