Update the law!
All public uses —- fishing, fowling & navigation —- were permanently protected in 1647. A modern definition of public uses will restore the original legislative intent. Click just above, or HERE, to read or download the motion. For those who don’t have time, here are 3 key excerpts.
From the lawsuit:
“The Maine Supreme Court made a big mistake in 1989, and ‘…the Law Court in 1989 reserved for itself the power, and therefore the responsibility, to determine whether any given activity fits within 17th Century notions of how a people are connected to the water.’”
“Rather than the fishing, fowling, and navigating analysis, Chief Justice Saufley proposed a test that public trust rights could include ocean-based uses that, consistent with common law, strike ‘a reasonable balance between private ownership of the intertidal lands and the public’s use of those lands.’”
“The court should declare that the Plaintiffs’ intertidal activities are all ‘reasonable ocean-related activities that do not interfere with the upland owners’ peaceful enjoyment of their own property or their right to wharf out…’”