Opinion ID: 1138725
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: do the 1986 state subsistence laws violate article viii, section 17 or the equal protection clause of the alaska constitution (article i, section 1)?

Text: The court holds the state subsistence laws unconstitutional on equal protection grounds. [12] Although this court has not yet addressed the issue whether equal access to fish and game is a fundamental right, we have held that commercial fishing is not fundamental. Commercial Fisheries Entry Comm'n v. Apokedak, 606 P.2d 1255, 1262 (Alaska 1980). Other courts have concluded that recreational hunting is not a fundamental right. See, e.g., Baldwin v. Montana Fish and Game Comm'n, 436 U.S. 371, 98 S.Ct. 1852, 56 L.Ed.2d 354 (1978) (elk hunting by non-residents not fundamental); Utah Public Employees Ass'n v. State, 610 P.2d 1272 (Utah 1980) (entry in big game permit drawing not fundamental). See also Herscher v. State, Department of Commerce, 568 P.2d 996, 1003, 1006 (Alaska 1977). In my view, the interest at stake, i.e., the right to participate in subsistence hunting and fishing, is not a fundamental right. Maximum scrutiny is reserved for fundamental rights and suspect classifications. Ostrosky, 667 P.2d at 1192. Given what I perceive to be the appropriate characterization of the interest involved, the state must demonstrate the existence of a substantial relationship between the means utilized by the legislation and the legitimate governmental ends sought to be achieved thereby. Since I am of the view that strict scrutiny is inapplicable, I conclude that the questioned legislation does not violate the Alaska Constitution's equal protection clause. The challenged subsistence laws are fairly and substantially related to the important governmental goal of protecting the health and welfare of the state's subsistence users, a goal admittedly within the state's police powers to pursue. [13] Implicit in my view that this legislation is not violative of equal protection is the further conclusion that the subsistence classification formulated to fulfill this concededly legitimate legislative purpose is not constitutionally infirm. As we said in Apokedak, 606 P.2d at 1267: [I]ndividual cases will arise in which those barred may be able to show extreme hardship. The legislature in its wisdom could conceivably have better provided for such instances. But equal protection, even under Alaska's stricter standard, does not demand perfection in classification. If it did, there would be few laws establishing classifications that would sustain an equal protection challenge. The subsistence legislation in question here effectively captures within its ambit the thousands of subsistence users residing in Alaska's numerous rural villages. In short, I would hold that the subsistence laws' fit satisfies the requirements of equal protection under both article I, section 1, and article VIII, section 17 of the Alaska Constitution.