AUGUSTA, Maine — Maine's longstanding Sunday hunting ban was upheld by the state Supreme Court, which issued a landmark ruling Thursday.
The ban, which has been in effect since 1883, does not conflict with a new state law protecting the right to harvest food, justices said in a ruling against Virginia and Joel Parker, a Readfield couple who argued the ban clashes with a recently enacted right-to-food amendment in the state Constitution.
The Parkers sued the state Department of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife in 2022 after Maine voters in 2021 approved an amendment to the state Constitution declaring "all individuals have a natural, inherent and unalienable right to grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being."
The Parkers said they acquire food for themselves and their five children by hunting, but work and school commitments limit the days of the week they can hunt to the weekends. After the amendment passed, Virginia Parker tried to get permits from the wildlife department for Sunday hunting but was denied.
"We are not persuaded by the Parkers’ argument that the Sunday hunting ban has been rendered unconstitutional by the enactment of the amendment and, accordingly, we hold that the Sunday hunting ban does not conflict with the amendment," Justice Andrew Mead wrote in an opinion. "In sum, we hold that the right to hunt for food created by the amendment does not extend to illegal hunting, and therefore Maine’s longstanding Sunday hunting ban does not conflict with the Maine Constitution."
The justices said that while the amendment establishes a right to hunt, it includes a limitation on poaching.
"The effect of the poaching exception is that the right to hunt exists in situations in which hunting is otherwise legal but does not extend to situations in which hunting is illegal," Mead wrote. "The amendment does not articulate what would render hunting illegal. That said, neither party disputes the meaning of the ban, and we agree that the ban unambiguously provides that it is illegal to hunt on Sunday."
Sunday hunting in Maine is punishable by a Class E misdemeanor. Many states, especially those in the Northeast, have had Sunday hunting bans, seen as a remnant of puritanical "blue laws" that discouraged other Sunday activities like drinking alcohol. Most of those states have removed the bans; Maine and Massachusetts are the two remaining ones with full Sunday hunting bans.
The Sportsman’s Alliance of Maine supported the right-to-food amendment and the Parkers' attempt to legalize Sunday hunting, while groups like the Maine Woodland Owners supported keeping the ban. More than 90% of Maine forest land is privately owned.
David Trahan, executive director of the Sportsman's Alliance, said Thursday's ruling was important in clearing up legal ambiguity.
"The (Parkers') lawsuit had generated a lot of controversy and bad blood between sportsmen and women and landowners," Trahan told NEWS CENTER Maine. "So, although our organization supports Sunday hunting, we also saw this as being something that needed to be resolved quickly before it did permanent damage in the relationship between our community and landowners."
"I also appreciate them bringing the lawsuit because it settled something that needed to be settled," he added.
Tom Doak, executive director of the Maine Woodland Owners, told NEWS CENTER Maine a return to Sunday hunting is wrong.
"There’s been this long tradition of landowners getting Sunday to fully enjoy their property," he said.
Maine hunters have the right to hunt anywhere that isn't specifically posted, and the woodland owners said if the Sunday ban was reversed, more landowners would post no-trespassing signs.
"It's more than just hunting," Doak said. "It's about protecting the access to private land for all activities, whether it's hunting, snowmobiling, or ATVing.
"There's a delicate balance."