Case Title: Arkansas Game and Fish Comm'n v. Murders

Citation: 

Docket Number: 

State: arkansas

Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

Date: 1997-03-03T00:00:00Z

Document:
ARKANSAS GAME and FISH COMMISSION v. Nelson
MURDERS, Jr., Roland Bates, Judy Pickering,
Roy Pickering, Dean Meredith , Verdell
Meredith, and Darrell Meredith

96-338                                             ___ S.W.2d ___

                    Supreme Court of Arkansas
                 Opinion delivered March 3, 1997


1.   Constitutional law -- Game & Fish Commission has broad
     discretion to regulate manner of taking game -- appellant's
     power does not translate into general power to regulate
     possession of all firearms on roads. -- Although the appellant
     Commission, under Amendment 35, has exclusive power and
     authority to regulate the manner of taking game, to regulate
     seasons, and to fix penalties for violation of the
     regulations, this broad discretion in carrying out its powers
     is not unfettered; appellant's power to regulate the manner of
     taking game does not translate into a general power to
     regulate the general possession of all firearms on city,
     county, state, or federally maintained roads or rights-of-way. 
     
2.   Statutes -- overbroad statutes -- amended rule overbroad --
     appellant exceeded its authority to regulate manner of taking
     game. -- An overbroad statute is one that is designed to
     punish conduct that the state may rightfully punish, but that
     includes within its sweep constitutionally protected conduct;
     here the Commission's rule, as amended, essentially shifted
     the burden to non-hunters who possess loaded or uncased
     firearms on city, county, state, or federally maintained roads
     or rights-of-way, to prove that they are not engaged in the
     prohibited act of road hunting; rule 18.04, as amended, may
     include within its sweep innocent and legitimate conduct; the
     amended rule was overbroad, and exceeded the Commission's
     authority granted under Amendment 35 to regulate the manner of
     taking game.  

3.   Constitutional law -- amended rule unconstitutionally
     overbroad -- decision of trial court affirmed. -- The trial
     court's decision that amended rule 18.04 was
     unconstitutionally overbroad was affirmed.


     Appeal from Garland Circuit Court; Walter Wright, Judge;
affirmed.
     P. Douglas Mays and James Watson, and Friday, Eldredge &
Clark, by:  Robert S. Shafer, H. Charles Gschwend, Jr., and Allison
Graves, for appellant.
     Q. Byrum Hurst, Jr., for appellees.

     W.H."Dub" Arnold, Chief Justice.
     The appellant, Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, appeals a
ruling of the Garland County Circuit Court declaring that amended
code 18.04, which prohibits road hunting, is void.  Because we
agree that the amended portion of the Commission's rule is
unconstitutionally overbroad and exceeds the scope of the
Commission's constitutional authority, we affirm the ruling of the
trial court.    
     The appellees are licensed hunters who reside in Garland
County, Arkansas.  Pursuant to Ark. Code Ann.  25-15-207(a)
(1987), they brought a declaratory judgment action against the
Commission and its Director, Steve N. Wilson, challenging amended
code provision 18.04.  The provision generally prohibits hunting
from or shooting across any city, county, state, or federally
maintained road or right-of-way.  It further prohibits hunting
within fifty yards from the center of any city, county, state, or
federally maintained road or right-of-way during any modern gun
deer season.  The penalty for violation of the rule ranges from a
$100.00 to a $1,000.00 fine.  The amendatory language at issue,
added by the Commission in April of 1995, reads as follows:
     NOTE: It shall be prima facie evidence during modern gun
     and muzzleloading deer season that a person is hunting if
     the person is in possession of a loaded firearm on any
     city, county, state, or federally-maintained road or the
     right-of-way thereof in an area in which wild game is
     likely to be present.  Firearms being carried in a motor
     vehicle or conveyance must be unloaded and enclosed in a
     case or placed in a gun rack (unloaded) while on any
     city, county, state or federally-maintained road or the
     right-of-way thereof in an area in which wild game is
     likely to be present.

     . . . 

     EXCEPTIONS: (1) Handguns carried in motor vehicle for
     purpose other than hunting.

     (2) Persons engaged in a lawful action to protect their
     livestock or property.

     (3) Law enforcement officials in respect to the official
     job duties.

The appellees filed this action on August 10, 1995, challenging the
amended code 18.04 on many grounds, including that it was arbitrary
and capricious and unconstitutionally vague and overbroad.  They
also claimed that the amendment violated the American Disabilities
Act, the equal protection clause, the constitutional right to bear
arms, the presumption of innocence, and the separation-of-powers
doctrine.  Finally, the appellees claimed that the amendment was
contrary to statute, particularly Ark. Code Ann.  5-73-120 (Repl.
1993).  Following a trial, the trial court entered an order
declaring that the amended portion of regulation 18.04 was void. 
The trial court's order adopted the appellees' findings and
conclusions, with the exception of their arguments regarding the
ADA.  On appeal, the Commission challenges each of the trial
court's rulings.
    The appellees maintain, and the trial court agreed, that
amended code 18.04 is unconstitutionally overbroad because its
wording is so inclusive that it may affect the rights of non-
hunters who possess loaded or uncased firearms on city, county,
state, or federally maintained roads or rights-of-way.  In turn,
the Commission urges that amended code 18.04 bears a rational
relationship to the legitimate objective of suppressing illegal
road hunting, an activity which, pursuant to Amendment 35 of the
Arkansas Constitution, the Commission has the authority to
regulate.  According to the Commission, the fact that some persons
who have no intention of hunting may travel the highways during
deer season with loaded or uncased firearms does not undermine the
rule's legitimate sweep.  
     We agree that the Commission, under Amendment 35, has plenary
authority over the "control, management, restoration, conservation
and regulation of birds, fish, game and wildlife resources of the
State."  Section 8 of Amendment 35 also grants the Commission "the
exclusive power and authority to regulate the manner of taking
game, to regulate seasons, and to fix penalties for violation of
the regulations."  However, while we have said that the Commission
has broad discretion in carrying out its powers, see Chaffin v.
Ark. Game & Fish Comm'n, 296 Ark. 431,