Montana Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment (2022)
| Montana Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Election date November 8, 2022 | |
| Topic Hunting and fishing | |
| Status Not on the ballot | |
| Type Constitutional amendment | Origin State legislature |
The Montana Right to Hunt and Fish Amendment was not on the ballot in Montana as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on November 8, 2022.[1]
The amendment would have amended the Montana Constitution to state that citizens have a "right to hunt, fish, trap, and harvest wild fish and wildlife."[2]
Text of measure
Ballot question
The ballot question would have been as follows:[2]
| “ |
An act submitting to the qualified electors of Montana an amendment to Article IX, section 7, of the Montana constitution to protect the rights of Montana citizens to hunt, fish, trap, and harvest wild fish and wildlife; establishing that hunting, fishing, and trapping is the preferred manner of managing wild fish and wildlife; allowing for necessary management statutes and regulations; maintaining that this right does not create a right to trespass on private property or diminish other private rights; and providing an effective date. [ ] YES on Constitutional Amendment [ ] NO on Constitutional Amendment[3] |
” |
Constitutional changes
- See also: Article IX, Montana Constitution
The measure would have amended section 7 of Article IX of the state constitution. The following underlined text would have been added, and struck-through text would have been deleted:[2]
Text of Section 7: Preservation of Harvest Heritage
The opportunity to harvest wild fish and wild game animals is a heritage that shall forever be preserved to the individual citizens of the state and does not create a right to trespass on private property or diminution of other private rights. The citizens of Montana have the right to hunt, fish, trap, and harvest wild fish and wildlife, including the right to use current means and methods, which does not create or imply any right of public trespass on private property or diminish in any way vested private property rights. The state shall give preference to hunting, fishing, and trapping by citizens as the primary but not exclusive means of the state's management of wild fish and wildlife populations for the benefit of all Montanans. This right is subject to the necessary management statutes enacted by the legislature and regulatory authority delegated by the legislature to a designated public agency or commission.[3]
Path to the ballot
- See also: Amending the Montana Constitution
To put a legislatively referred constitutional amendment before voters, a two-thirds (66.67%) vote is required in both the Montana State Senate and the Montana House of Representatives.
House Bill 367 (HB 367) was introduced on February 10, 2021. The state House approved the bill on March 29, 2021, in a vote of 66-34. The vote was along party lines with Rep. Sharon Greef being the sole Republican to vote against it. The amendment was defeated in the state Senate by a vote of 31-19, which did not meet the two-thirds supermajority requirement.[1]
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See also
External links
Footnotes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Montana State Legislature, "Overview of HB 367," accessed March 29, 2021
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Montana State Legislature, "Text of HB 367" accessed March 29, 2021
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source. Cite error: Invalid
<ref>tag; name "quotedisclaimer" defined multiple times with different content - ↑ Since Montana requires a two-thirds (66.67%) vote of all members of the legislature taken together, as long as there are enough yes votes in the first chamber to make passage possible (i.e., 50 in the House and 0 in the Senate), the proposal moves to the next chamber. However, a vote of less than a two-thirds majority in the first chamber requires a vote of more than two-thirds in the second chamber.
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State of Montana Helena (capital) |
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