What kind of country are we living in, when a taxpaying, red blooded American can’t hunt moose from the comfort of his own hovercraft?
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Wednesday in a case that could have huge implications for the government’s authority to regulate state and private property bordering lands controlled by federal agencies.
At issue is a National Park Service regulation banning an Alaskan man from riding his hovercraft through a conservation area to hunt moose. Park rangers arrested John Sturgeon in 2007 for riding his hovercraft on the Nation river, citing a federal regulation banning hovercrafts.
Sturgeon argued federal regulations have no force because the Nation River is owned by the state of Alaska — the state allows hovercrafts on the river. Sturgeon says park service regulations are limited to federal lands, not state lands owned by the state.
Since 1996, the National Park Service has applied its hovercraft ban on federal lands to cover navigable waters within conservation area boundaries — even if they are owned by the state.
A federal appeals court disagreed with Sturgeon and ruled in favor of the government, based on the reasoning that park service rules are only limited “if they are Alaska-specific,” according to Reuters. This means “national regulations like the hovercraft ban could be interpreted more expansively to cover land within a conservation area not federally owned,” Reuters noted.
We’ll be sure to keep you posted on the outcome of this case.
AAN Staff
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