State of Alaska and Frank Rue, as Commissioner of Fish and Game v. Kenaitze Indian Tribe, Ninilchik Traditional Council, Knik Tribal Council, and Native Village of Eklutna; Kenaitze Indian Tribe, Cross-Appellant v. State of Alaska and Frank Rue, as Commissioner of Fish and Game, Cross-Appellees

State v. Kenaitze Indian Tribe, 83 P.3d 1060 (Alaska 2004) · Supreme Court of Alaska · January 16, 2004 · No. S-10358

Summary

The Supreme Court of Alaska reviewed challenges to a regulation designating portions of the Kenai Peninsula, Anchorage, and Matanuska-Susitna Borough as a nonsubsistence area. The court held that the Joint Boards of Fisheries and Game acted within their statutory discretion and did not act arbitrarily or capriciously in adopting the regulation or considering the available evidence. The court reversed the superior court's invalidation of the regulation and rejected the Kenaitze Indian Tribe's cross-appeal.

Holdings

  1. The joint boards did not exceed their delegated authority by drawing initial nonsubsistence boundaries before applying the statutory socioeconomic criteria, by determining the order in which to apply those criteria, or by combining proposed areas for analysis.
  2. The joint boards acted reasonably and not arbitrarily in including Knik, Eklutna, and Ninilchik in the Anchorage-MatSu-Kenai Nonsubsistence Area.
  3. The regulation was not invalid for including the remainder of the Kenai Peninsula in the Anchorage-MatSu-Kenai Nonsubsistence Area.

Questions Presented

  1. Whether 5 AAC 99.015 was consistent with AS 16.05.258(c) despite the joint boards' use of proposed boundaries before applying the statutory criteria and their combination of geographic areas.
  2. Whether the joint boards acted reasonably and without arbitrariness by relying on the information available to them and by including Knik, Eklutna, and Ninilchik in the nonsubsistence area.
  3. Whether the inclusion of the remainder of the Kenai Peninsula in the Anchorage-MatSu-Kenai Nonsubsistence Area was invalid.

Disposition

other

Cases Cited (11)

  • State v. Kenaitze Indian Tribe, 894 P.2d 632, 635, 638-39, 642 (Alaska 1995)(followed)
  • Interior Alaska Airboat Ass'n v. State, Bd. of Game, 18 P.3d 686, 689-90, 693 (Alaska 2001)(followed)
  • Stepovak-Shumagin Set Net Ass'n v. State, Bd. of Fisheries, 886 P.2d 632, 636-37, 641-42 (Alaska 1994)(followed)
  • Kelly v. Zamarello, 486 P.2d 906, 911 (Alaska 1971)(followed)
  • Native Vill. of Elim v. State, 990 P.2d 1, 9-11 (Alaska 1999)(followed)
  • Grimes v. Kinney Shoe Corp., 938 P.2d 997, 1000 n. 7 (Alaska 1997)(followed)
  • Carney v. State, Bd. of Fisheries, 785 P.2d 544, 548 (Alaska 1990)(followed)
  • McDowell v. State, 785 P.2d 1, 9 (Alaska 1989)(followed)
  • Hammond v. N. Slope Borough, 645 P.2d 750, 759-60 (Alaska 1982)(followed)
  • Alaska Survival v. State, Dep't of Natural Res., 723 P.2d 1281, 1287 (Alaska 1986)(followed)

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