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Maine’s Mysterious New ‘Right to Food’
Is this addition to the state’s constitution a libertarian advance or a Trojan horse?
Spring 2022 • Regulation
By Pierre Desrochers and Pierre Lemieux
The Human Right to Food in Maine and Beyond
by R. DENISSE CORDOVA MONTES
PHOTO BY JOSHUA PREZANT
December 10, 2023, marked the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This foundational instrument on human rights prominently recognized economic, social, and cultural rights as indispensable to ensure a life of dignity.
What the Maine Supreme Court’s recent ruling means for Mainers’ right to food
In 2021, Maine voters approved a constitutional amendment that ensured Mainers the right to “food of their own choosing.” This right includes consuming, growing and harvesting food and has been interpreted to include hunting. Maine’s courts have affirmed that our Constitution now guarantees a right to hunt, but specific provisions have been interpreted to limit this right in an absurd way.
Maine High Court Upholds Centuries-Old Sunday Hunting Ban
By Martha F. Davis
Published: April 10, 2024
The court rejected claims that the ban conflicted with a 2021 constitutional amendment guaranteeing a right to food.
Dictionaries and the Law – Hunting, Poaching, and the Right to Food
by: Joshua D. Dunlap of Pierce Atwood LLP - Maine Appeals
Monday, April 1, 2024
https://natlawreview.com/article/dictionaries-and-law-hunting-poaching-and-right-food
Sunday hunting lawsuit isn’t over
Contributed •January 3, 2023
By V. Paul Reynolds
In November of 2021, Maine voters approved a state referendum to the State Constitution called the Right-To-Food Amendment. The amendment, the first of its kind in the United States, provides Mainers with a constitutional right to grow, harvest and consume their own food, and it includes protections for rights to seed saving and seed sharing. The amendment was approved by the State Legislature by a two-thirds vote early in 2021, but it needed approval from voters in order to become a constitutional amendment.