SUPREME COURT RULES ON PUBLIC ACCESS TO STATE WATERS
Posted: Mon Sep 05, 2022 11:49 pm
NEW MEXICO SUPREME COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF PUBLIC ACCESS TO STATE WATERS
Court rules unanimously that ‘non-navigable regulation’ is unconstitutional, voids existing closure certifications
SANTA FE, N.M. – Today the New Mexico Supreme Court issued a ruling strongly in support of public access to the state’s waters when it unanimously struck down a regulation allowing landowners to close access to streams running through their properties.
The New Mexico Chapter of BHA, along with the New Mexico Wildlife Federation and the Adobe Whitewater Club of New Mexico, filed suit in 2020 asking the court to nullify the regulation as unconstitutional. Today the court agreed. The decision not only strikes the so-called Non-Navigability Rule from the books; it also voids closures on five New Mexico streams adopted previously.
“This decision by the state Supreme Court is great news for anglers, boaters and others who use our public waters in New Mexico, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise,” said New Mexico Backcountry Hunters & Anglers Policy Chair Joel Gay. “In 1945 the Supreme Court said the same thing – that these waters throughout the state are everyone’s to enjoy for recreational use. We don’t know how that constitutional right got lost, but for decades we have been told otherwise. Our chapter thanks the state Supreme Court for setting the record straight – again.”
FULL STORY: https://www.backcountryhunters.org/new_ ... ate_waters