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Fish and Game Code March 16, 2009
Now that our lawsuit has been settled, and the unconstitutional part of the Structural Pest Control Act has been declared unenforcible, its time to turn our attention to another piece of economic protectionism passed by the legislature for the benefit of the pesticide applicators in this state at our expense. Today, I sent a letter to the Fish and Game Commission asking for the deletion of Section 4005(e)(2)(3) from the Fish and Game Code of Regulations because it also violates our Fourteenth Amendment privileges or immunities, equal protection and due process rights. The Merrifield v. Lockyer case helped to establish the principle that the legislature may not arbitrarily grant preferences to some businesses as opposed to others, but that its laws must bear some genuine relationship to the protection of the public. Assembly Bill 87, now know as Section 4005(e)(2)(3), was never intended to have any public benefit and, for this reason, it too would fail the required “rational basis test” and be declared unconstitutional should the State ever have to defend the question again in federal court.
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