If Maine's high court rules against personal watercraft restrictions, it
could affect dozens of water bodies.
By Trevor Maxwell, Portland Press Herald
Three years ago, Mark Haskell bought a $13,000 Sea Doo personal watercraft
and set out to break the law.
He took the watercraft out on Lake St. George on the Fourth of July,
fittingly in the central Maine town of Liberty, where he owns a camp. Residents
there had voted a few years earlier to ban such machines from the lake, and the
Legislature approved the ban.
That didn't sit well with Haskell, a self-described rabble-rouser who felt
his individual rights were being trampled. He welcomed the ticket he got from a
warden, and he has taken his case all the way to the state's highest court.
On Thursday, the seven justices of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court heard
arguments in Portland. At issue is whether the state – at the request of
individual towns – has the right to ban personal watercraft on lakes and
ponds.
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