↑ Grab this Headline Animator

Arizona Moves To Reinstate Hunt Cap

Arizona plans to reinstate a 10 percent cap on the number of non-Arizonans granted the most desirable big-game hunting licenses annually, the state Game and Fish Department said Wednesday.



Arizona had scrapped its previous 10 percent cap in the wake of a federal court ruling that declared it unconstitutional.



However, the door was opened for Arizona and other states to limit nonresidents' hunting opportunities when Congress passed a law that renounced federal interest in regulating hunting and fishing permits under the Commerce Clause of the Constitution, the department said.



"It will take some time, and we'll have public hearings before a final change is made," said Richard Rico, an assistant director. "However, we're moving in the direction of putting a cap back in place, if the court lifts its injunction as expected."



The federal law sponsored by Western lawmakers and signed in May by President Bush affirms the rights of states to regulate hunting and fishing and lets them treat residents and nonresidents differently.



The law was a reaction to a 2002 ruling in which the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in an Arizona case that states restricting nonresident hunting tags must do so in the least discriminatory way. Following that ruling, a federal judge who had originally upheld Arizona's cap ordered the state to scrap it and institute a less discriminatory alternative.



Arizona officials had argued that the cap on licenses for nonresidents was justified because state residents play a bigger role than nonresidents in preserving and managing game herds.



source: Water and Woods http://waterandwoods.net/news.phpextend.1067

↑ Grab this Headline Animator

---

This article has been robotically scanned and tagged by Prnewsnow with the following search tags. No human manipulation of these tags take place.
| Hosting | Hosting Companies | |

---

4884 readers online...

, Local News