Maine Court Vacates Ruling On Watercraft Ban


POSTED: 1:30 pm EDT May 8, 2008
UPDATED: 1:42 pm EDT May 8, 2008



PORTLAND, Maine -- Maine's highest court has vacated a lower court decision that said a state law banning personal watercraft on Lake St. George was unconstitutional.
Mark Haskell invited a summons from a warden two summers ago for riding a Sea-Doo on the lake because he objected to the state's ban on personal watercraft on the lake. He argued that the ban was unreasonable and arbitrary.
Superior Court Justice Donald Marden last fall agreed with Haskell, saying the law was unduly arbitrary.
But in a unanimous decision, the Maine Supreme Judicial Court on Thursday agreed with the state's argument that riding personal watercraft is not a fundamental right.