The Supreme Court refused to hear a challenge to
Montana’s “hunter harassment” law which prohibits intentional
interference with lawful hunting. A Gallatin County, Mont., court
convicted animal rights activist John Lilburn of a misdemeanor
under the law in 1990 for stepping in front of a buffalo hunter’s
rifle and shouting, “Don’t shoot!” The conviction was overturned by
a Montana appeals court in 1993 on the grounds that the law
violated Lilburn’s first amendment right to free speech (HCN,
7/26/93). Last summer, when the Montana Supreme Court ruled the law
constitutional, Lilburn decided to appeal to the U.S. Supreme
Court. Lilburn says he thinks the court backed away because
justices didn’t find his case precedent-setting. The outcome might
have been different had he challenged part of the law which
prohibits “verbally disturbing” a hunter during the hunt, he adds.
A federal law, passed as part of last year’s crime bill, prohibits
only physical disruptions. Although every state but Hawaii now has
a hunter harrassment law, some are being challenged in state
courts. Eric Glitzenstein, one of Lilburn’s attorneys, says that
makes the issue far from decided; he believes the Supreme Court
will have to eventually take up the question.
*Anders Halverson
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Hunter-harassment law stands.
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