I was pointed to this article that says, in part:
Anything to this? This is the only article I could find on it.
I can’t address the legal aspect; my opinion is that this ruling is garbage and sure to be overturned. However, by searching on “Judge Robert G. James”, I found several sites mentioning this such as this.
That was my opinion too. I searched “Judge Robert James” and got nothing. Damn that middle initial!
Roberts is definitely a real judge and in the right district:
Mark Shumate is a real LA sheriff.
Can’t find anything about the case but dire warnings by sportsman groups.
My parents and uncle have slips on the Mississippi river near St. Charles, MO. That area of the river is HUGE for boating. We go every weekend when it’s warm.
So this is stupid.
From the little I can determine, the issue appeared to begin with people fishing over the flooded portion of the property belonging to a farm. In other words, the Mississppi (or some tributary thereto) overflowed its banks to the point where one could cruise a bass boat up to someone’s backyard and drop a line outside someone’s bedroom window.
I am not yet sure whether the ruling is appropriate (but badly worded–or correctly worded but misunderstood) or inappropriate. Certainly, there are interest groups who are up in arms, but I am not prepared to panic until I see a genuine explanation of the ruling by a non-biased party (and, if it is bad), then supported by an appellate court.
There is a point beyond which a ruling on some matters becomes too absurd to worry about. I think this ruling, if it is what it has been reported to be, has passed that point. Even if it is as it appears from the sites linked to above and even if some Miracle of Stupidity occurs and an appeals court upholds it, it isn’t going to change anything. It won’t be allowed to. States across the Union make way too much money off of tags and licensing and so on to allow anything like this to ever be enforced.