Ruling may end boating in US

[BeautifulLoser]

http://www.ybw.com/ibinews/newsdesk/20060814154923ibinews.html

[jmowreader]

1. I didn't know they allowed judges to drink on the bench

First, welcome to DU.

Second, google "riparian rights." You'll find pages like http://www.bae.ncsu.edu/programs/extension/publicat/arep/waterlaw.html#Reasonable. (This gives North Carolina's law regarding riparian rights.)

This is what EVERY state, plus the federal government, says about riparian rights:

Riparian rights are extended to any landowner whose property abuts a stream or lake.

Ownership rights of a riparian property extend to the center of the body of water. This naturally means that as erosion changes the course of a stream, the owner's property line also changes.

Riparian rights give a landowner permission to:
* take water from and discharge water back into the stream, so long as the removal and discharge do not adversely affect the other users of the stream.
* build a structure on the bottom of the body of water, such as a pier.

Now...let's talk about the water. A landowner does NOT own the water itself, which is what this shithead judge decided. According to the laws of every state, the federal government and the common law, if a body of water is navigable by any vessel to include a canoe or a raft, then the public has the permanent right to use the water for any purpose of commerce or recreation. In some states the public is entitled to wade in the water without seeking the permission of the riparian rightsholder; others don't allow this. And if the water is NOT navigable by any vessel, access to the water can be restricted.

Now...there are different laws for oceanfront property. The state holds saltwater-covered land in trust for the people. Therefore, any ocean-front land (littoral land), and any land abutting a body of freshwater which opens into the ocean and on which "historic seagoing vessels" may traverse (or, in the case of waterways such as the Columbia River to the mouth of the Snake and the Snake to Lewiston, Idaho, and the St. Lawrence Seaway, waterways currently used in ocean commerce), the state owns any lands up to the normal high-water mark. Once again, the water itself is held in trust for the people.

What I'm saying is that this judge is completely full of shit and this verdict will be overturned by the first appellate judge who sees it. Fuck, man, high school moot court teams would overturn this POS ruling even if they were from All-Freeper High.