This story will be updated.
Sunday hunting is still illegal in Maine after the state’s top court ruled Thursday that the 140-year-ban does not conflict with Maine’s constitution.
The 2021 right-to-food amendment provided critics of the Sunday hunting ban an avenue to sue, saying the ban was unconstitutional. The Maine Supreme Judicial Court disagreed after hearing arguments in October.
That 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. A key part of the amendment was the meaning of the word “harvest.”
Maine Assistant Attorney General Paul Suitter argued that harvest referred to agriculture, not hunting. While Pamela Lee, attorney for Virginia and Joel Parker, who filed the lawsuit in 2022, said “harvest” replaced a string of words, including fishing, clamming and foraging in the amendment, which is designed to encompass them all, including hunting.
Private woodlands in Maine are typically open to hunters, hikers and others as long as there aren’t “no trespassing” or “access by permission only” signs or other markings.
