The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to rehear the case of an Alaska moose hunter whose use of a hovercraft in the Nation River got him in trouble with the National Park Service.
John Sturgeon was on his annual moose hunt in Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve in 2007 when rangers told him Park Service rules prohibit hovercraft.
The case has become a test of the state of Alaska’s sovereignty. Attorney General Jahna Lindemuth says if Sturgeon loses, the federal government will be allowed to overrun Alaska’s right to make decisions about managing state waters “to promote the best interests of Alaskans.”
Sturgeon and the state claim the Park Service hovercraft ban doesn’t apply to the Nation River, even when it flows through the federal preserve, because the land under navigable waters belongs to the state.
The Supreme Court heard the case in 2016 and sent it back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals, saying the court’s interpretation of the law was wrong. But the high court didn’t say what the correct interpretation is, so when the Ninth Circuit again ruled against Sturgeon, citing a different reason, it seemed inevitable the justices would hear the case again.
The Supreme Court agreed to take up the case sometime in next term, which runs from October until next June or July.
Liz Ruskin is the Washington, D.C., correspondent at Alaska Public Media. Reach her at lruskin@alaskapublic.org. Read more about Liz here.
