blitzhunter
05-19-2010, 09:07 PM
NEW YORK STATE
PICKS A FIGHT IT CAN'T WIN
By Dan Rattiner
There's a whole lot of fish in the ocean off our shores patiently waiting to find out who will be allowed to catch them and who not. It's been a matter that's been up in the air since one year ago when New York State passed a law that said anybody throwing a fishing line into the ocean in this state would have to have a State permit to do so.
You may not have thought much about this, but the fact is that until now there are no laws on the books to make a private individual get a license to do just about anything in the ocean. You can swim in it, surf in it, hang glide in it, snorkel in it, scuba dive in it, even pee in it if you have a mind to do that. The ocean is for everyone.
That is not to say you are free to break the law in the ocean. You can't try to drown somebody in it. You can't mess with an endangered species in it. You can't swim outside of the designated areas if you are at a beach where there's a lifeguard. But nowhere is a license required to simply go into the ocean or take from the bounty of the ocean for your own personal use.
Then came last Spring. And the new law. Oddly, along the southern shoreline of Long Island, which is the only place in the state that there is an ocean, people from Brookhaven to New York City meekly obeyed this law.
Southampton and East Hampton were another matter. Along the stretch from Westhampton Beach to Montauk, the trustees of these two townships filed a lawsuit against the state salt water fishing license. Also joining in the lawsuit was the Town of Southold. Southold may not be along the ocean, but the beaches of Long Island Sound are salty as well and the law applies all along the north shore of the Island too. Or does it? Well, the towns for the first 90 miles from New York City along the north shore agreed to the fishing license requirement. For the last 20 miles, Southold did not.
The three towns' objections came in the form of a demand for a preliminary injunction to prevent the State from enforcing their law. Backing it up was the claim by these three groups of trustees that they alone in the State of New York had the right to regulate the laws about saltwater fishing in their towns.
Be aware of this. These trustees were not members of some board created by these townships. Townships in New York State, including Southold, Southampton and East Hampton, are run by a Town Board composed of Town Councilmen. No. These trustees were an ancient authority in these three communities that had been created by an edict of the King of England in 1686 before there was even a United States of America.
The edict says that in ocean waters, along bay bottoms, in lakes, ponds, harbors and rivers, the people living in these communities would forevermore have the right to enjoy the bounty of the seas for their own personal use without interference of any other authority that might someday be created. The rights would be held in trust for them. And the trust would be administered by trustees. There would be the East Hampton, Southampton and Southold Trustees to see to it that this edict was enforced.
In 1686, when this edict was issued, the King of England held sway in what is now New York. There were still enclaves of Dutch traders in the far north of what would a hundred years later become the State of New York. And the control of what they called New Amsterdam had only been wrested away from the Dutch about 20 years earlier. The King, backed up by his Boards of Trustees and administered by a Governor who reported directly to the King was how this area was governed then.
Indeed, Trusts and Trustees were created in ALL the towns on Long Island, which was where the access to a wide variety of bodies of water might need clarification.
When the Revolution was won in 1783, the Trustees in most of these communities melted away. In other communities-Huntington was a notable exception, the Trustees simply walked out of their headquarters, turned around and walked back in, now calling themselves a Town Board reporting to the United States.
In Southampton, East Hampton and Southold, however, the trustees have survived. They exist in their own offices, separate from the Town offices in each of these communities, and they usually work hand in hand with the Town Boards. The Town Trustees make the rules when it comes to the waters that lap the shores of the town. The Town Councilmen make the rules for everything else in town.
In this case, the demand to oppose the new State mandated saltwater fishing license was filed by the Trustees, but with the support of the Town Boards.
The application for a temporary injunction might have been simply denied by a State Judge. Judges do that when they consider a matter frivolous or not pressing. In this case, last Friday, the judge ruled in favor of the Towns. The power of the Trustees is a serious matter. It has survived legal challenges for centuries. The judge would now hold off on allowing the State licenses to be either issued until the matter could be adjudicated in the courtroom. For this summer anyway, the State fishing licenses, which would require a fee to be paid to drop a line in salt water, will not be enforced. The licenses themselves, already printed up, will sit dusty on shelves somewhere up in Albany.
Interestingly, about a month ago, when the State said it would proceed with the salt water fishing licenses as planned for the summer unless there was an injunction, a Newsday reporter wrote a story that really pissed me off.
WHO ARE THESE TRUSTEES? was the headline as I recall. The story expressed outrage that these Johnny-come-latelies had just sprung up to get the law thrown out in their particular towns. "These Trustees, whoever they are, are simply going to have to learn that when the state passes a law it will overrule whatever these upstart trustees have to say. Everyone has to obey the law," the reporter wrote, as I recall.
Well, yes. And no
http://www.danshamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue06_2010/07.html
PICKS A FIGHT IT CAN'T WIN
By Dan Rattiner
There's a whole lot of fish in the ocean off our shores patiently waiting to find out who will be allowed to catch them and who not. It's been a matter that's been up in the air since one year ago when New York State passed a law that said anybody throwing a fishing line into the ocean in this state would have to have a State permit to do so.
You may not have thought much about this, but the fact is that until now there are no laws on the books to make a private individual get a license to do just about anything in the ocean. You can swim in it, surf in it, hang glide in it, snorkel in it, scuba dive in it, even pee in it if you have a mind to do that. The ocean is for everyone.
That is not to say you are free to break the law in the ocean. You can't try to drown somebody in it. You can't mess with an endangered species in it. You can't swim outside of the designated areas if you are at a beach where there's a lifeguard. But nowhere is a license required to simply go into the ocean or take from the bounty of the ocean for your own personal use.
Then came last Spring. And the new law. Oddly, along the southern shoreline of Long Island, which is the only place in the state that there is an ocean, people from Brookhaven to New York City meekly obeyed this law.
Southampton and East Hampton were another matter. Along the stretch from Westhampton Beach to Montauk, the trustees of these two townships filed a lawsuit against the state salt water fishing license. Also joining in the lawsuit was the Town of Southold. Southold may not be along the ocean, but the beaches of Long Island Sound are salty as well and the law applies all along the north shore of the Island too. Or does it? Well, the towns for the first 90 miles from New York City along the north shore agreed to the fishing license requirement. For the last 20 miles, Southold did not.
The three towns' objections came in the form of a demand for a preliminary injunction to prevent the State from enforcing their law. Backing it up was the claim by these three groups of trustees that they alone in the State of New York had the right to regulate the laws about saltwater fishing in their towns.
Be aware of this. These trustees were not members of some board created by these townships. Townships in New York State, including Southold, Southampton and East Hampton, are run by a Town Board composed of Town Councilmen. No. These trustees were an ancient authority in these three communities that had been created by an edict of the King of England in 1686 before there was even a United States of America.
The edict says that in ocean waters, along bay bottoms, in lakes, ponds, harbors and rivers, the people living in these communities would forevermore have the right to enjoy the bounty of the seas for their own personal use without interference of any other authority that might someday be created. The rights would be held in trust for them. And the trust would be administered by trustees. There would be the East Hampton, Southampton and Southold Trustees to see to it that this edict was enforced.
In 1686, when this edict was issued, the King of England held sway in what is now New York. There were still enclaves of Dutch traders in the far north of what would a hundred years later become the State of New York. And the control of what they called New Amsterdam had only been wrested away from the Dutch about 20 years earlier. The King, backed up by his Boards of Trustees and administered by a Governor who reported directly to the King was how this area was governed then.
Indeed, Trusts and Trustees were created in ALL the towns on Long Island, which was where the access to a wide variety of bodies of water might need clarification.
When the Revolution was won in 1783, the Trustees in most of these communities melted away. In other communities-Huntington was a notable exception, the Trustees simply walked out of their headquarters, turned around and walked back in, now calling themselves a Town Board reporting to the United States.
In Southampton, East Hampton and Southold, however, the trustees have survived. They exist in their own offices, separate from the Town offices in each of these communities, and they usually work hand in hand with the Town Boards. The Town Trustees make the rules when it comes to the waters that lap the shores of the town. The Town Councilmen make the rules for everything else in town.
In this case, the demand to oppose the new State mandated saltwater fishing license was filed by the Trustees, but with the support of the Town Boards.
The application for a temporary injunction might have been simply denied by a State Judge. Judges do that when they consider a matter frivolous or not pressing. In this case, last Friday, the judge ruled in favor of the Towns. The power of the Trustees is a serious matter. It has survived legal challenges for centuries. The judge would now hold off on allowing the State licenses to be either issued until the matter could be adjudicated in the courtroom. For this summer anyway, the State fishing licenses, which would require a fee to be paid to drop a line in salt water, will not be enforced. The licenses themselves, already printed up, will sit dusty on shelves somewhere up in Albany.
Interestingly, about a month ago, when the State said it would proceed with the salt water fishing licenses as planned for the summer unless there was an injunction, a Newsday reporter wrote a story that really pissed me off.
WHO ARE THESE TRUSTEES? was the headline as I recall. The story expressed outrage that these Johnny-come-latelies had just sprung up to get the law thrown out in their particular towns. "These Trustees, whoever they are, are simply going to have to learn that when the state passes a law it will overrule whatever these upstart trustees have to say. Everyone has to obey the law," the reporter wrote, as I recall.
Well, yes. And no
http://www.danshamptons.com/content/danspapers/issue06_2010/07.html