Court Opinion

ID: 9570070
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:19:57.810933+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:04:49.570165
License: Public Domain

DYKMAN, J.
¶ 25. (dissenting). In five days, the people of the State of Wisconsin will vote on a constitutional amendment which would amend article I, section 26 of the Wisconsin Constitution to provide: "The people have the right to fish, hunt, trap, and take game subject only to reasonable restrictions as prescribed by law." If this amendment passes, and most *390predict that it will,1 the issue in this case will change to the definition of "game," as that word is used in the Constitution, whether doves are game, whether there are any restrictions on dove hunting, and if so, whether the restrictions are reasonable. The question will shift from whether a dove season is permitted to whether one is prohibited. What we say in these opinions will become moot. Were I writing for a majority, I would wait five days, and if the amendment passes, ask the parties to brief the constitutional issue rather than decide this case on laws that will have become largely inapplicable. But this is a dissent, so I must address the issues presented.
¶ 26. This is not a case about doves. It is a case about how courts discover what the legislature intended when it passed a variety of laws. The birds happen to be the vehicle for an inquiry into legislative intent.
¶ 27. This is also a case about the power or authority of an administrative agency. Again, it is not a case about doves. The doves are only the focus of an inquiry into the power or authority of the Department of Natural Resources.
¶ 28. It is telling that the trial court took ten pages to examine the statutes involved in this case and conclude: "The statutes involved in this case are as clear as mud." The majority has spent thirteen pages to conclude the opposite. There are now four judges who have written twenty-six pages trying to discern legislative intent, and they have split, two-to-two. That tells me that this is a close case, and that no matter who wins it, they have barely won it by a nose (or a beak).
*391¶ 29. My analysis is not extensive. I start with two long standing rules of administrative law: "[a]n administrative agency has only those powers which are expressly conferred or can be fairly implied from the statutes under which it operates." Maple Leaf Farms, Inc. v. DNR, 2001 WI App 170, ¶ 13, 247 Wis. 2d 96, 633 N.W.2d 720, review denied, 2001 WI 117, 247 Wis. 2d 1034, 635 N.W.2d 782 (No. 00-1389). And: "Any reasonable doubt as to the existence of an implied power in an agency should be resolved against the exercise of such authority. "Td (citation omitted).
¶ 30. The swamp surrounding the various statutes applicable to this case is murky. There is really no way to say, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the legislature has given the DNR authority to authorize a dove season. Even the majority fails to point to a statute providing in effect: "The DNR has the authority to set a dove season."
¶ 31. I have a reasonable doubt that the legislature has expressly or impliedly given the DNR that power. I am impressed that the legislature addressed the issue in 1971 by designating the mourning dove as the Wisconsin "symbol of peace," and removing the bird from the definition of "game." Common sense tells me that the legislature would not have done this intending that the "symbol of peace" would still find a place on someone's dinner table.2 While the legislature could *392have been more explicit, what we are looking for is legislative intent. Reyes v. Greatway Ins. Co., 227 Wis. 2d 357, 365, 597 N.W.2d 687 (1999). That the legislature did not do exactly as the majority would have liked is no reason to conclude that it did the opposite.
¶ 32. The majority draws "legislative intent" from the inaction of legislative committees, and the failure of the legislature to prohibit dove hunting. The action of a committee is by definition not the action of the legislature. Even the majority does not speak of "committee intent." The supreme court rejected the notion that committee inaction indicated legislative intent in American Motors Corp. v. DILHR, 101 Wis. 2d 337, 349, 305 N.W.2d 62 (1981). Even the joint committee for review of administrative rules lacks the power to enact legislation or rules. Wis. Stat. § 227.19(5)(e), (f). Non-passage of a bill is even worse evidence of what the legislature intended. "[N] on-passage of a bill is not reliable evidence of legislative intent." Lindsey v. Lindsey, 140 Wis. 2d 684, 694 n.8, 412 N.W.2d 132 (Ct. App. 1987). By saying so, the majority does not transform committee action and legislative non-action into legislative intent. In contrast, the legislature itself told us in 1971 that doves were no longer game birds, and were designated as Wisconsin's "bird of peace." Under the majority's view, non-action by later committees and legislatures effected a repeal of these legislative acts. I do not subscribe to this explanation of how Wisconsin law is made.
¶ 33. I conclude that the legislature signaled its intent that there should not be a hunting season for doves. Perhaps not as loudly or emphatically as it could have, but enough that this intent is discernible to those who inquire. Certainly, it did not signal the opposite intent beyond any reasonable doubt. Accordingly, the *393DNR exceeded its authority when it set a hunting season for the birds. The result is that its action is invalid. Oneida County v. Converse, 180 Wis. 2d 120, 125, 508 N.W.2d 416 (1993). Since that is not the opinion of the majority, I respectfully dissent.

 This amendment to article I, section 26 of the Wisconsin Constitution passed on April 1, 2003.

 I am not as convinced as the majority that muskies and white-tailed deer are analogous. While they are the state fish and state wildlife animal, they were not designated as Wisconsin's "fish of peace" and "deer of peace." And they have always been the object of anglers and hunters because of their culinary and trophy status. Doves have not achieved that status. I have yet to see a stuffed dove hanging on anyone's wall.