ACLU Appeal Supports Private Property Owners’ Hunting Rights
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 24, 2006
Contact: Andrew Schneider
(304) 345-9246
CHARLESTON, WV – The American Civil Liberties Union has appealed a lower court’s ruling upholding a ban on Sunday hunting in Ritchie County. The ACLU contends that the ban violates West Virginians’ right to keep and bear arms for lawful hunting and recreation, as guaranteed by the state constitution.
The case stems from a local election in 2002 in which Ritchie County citizens voted to prohibit Sunday hunting in the county. The election was held pursuant to legislation enacted in 2001 by the West Virginia legislature, allowing voters in each county to decide whether Sunday hunting will be allowed on private lands.
The Hartley Hill Hunt Club and several individual hunters subsequently filed suit, alleging that the action deprived them of their constitutionally protected right to hunt on Sundays on the 2034 acres leased by the Club as well as on their own private property. “This ban serves no useful purpose,” said ACLU cooperating attorney Jason Huber, who represents the hunters. “The legislature is prohibited from delegating to the several counties the ability to revoke the constitutional right to hunt based on popular vote. It can no more hand off the ability to revoke this right than it can other constitutional rights such as freedom of speech and equal protection of the laws.”
In its appeal, the Hunt Club also asserts that letting voters decide whether hunting is to be allowed on Sunday has no rational relationship to the state’s interest in promoting the protection and regulation of the state’s wildlife resources. “How can the state implement a consistent wildlife management policy if the right to hunt on private lands is determined by popular vote on a county by county basis?” asked Huber.
The Supreme Court of Appeals’ decision to consider the case is pending.
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