Federal Appeals Court Focuses On Issue Of Safety In Nocturnal Deer Hunting Case

District Court Has Already Ruled Against Wisconsin Tribes Vying For Right To Hunt At Night

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Photo: Peter Baer (CC-BY-NC-SA).

A federal appeals court panel in Chicago is considering whether to allow Native American tribes in Wisconsin to hunt deer at night.

Last year, U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled that tribes could not implement their plan to allow tribal members to hunt deer at night on public land in a seven-county area in northern Wisconsin known as the Ceded Territories. This week, Federal Judge Richard Posner sounded more open to the idea. He asked attorneys for the state whether it wasn’t actually safer to hunt deer at night than it is during the day.

“At night when you freeze them with a light, they are this large stationery target like shooting at a target on a shooting range, so I don’t know what your concern is,” said Posner.

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The state argued that members of the nontribal public have never been allowed to hunt at night and, that something like that only occurs when the state hires professionals to eliminate nuisance deer. Judge Frank Easterbrook, however, said that neither the tribes nor the state have submitted any evidence about the safety of night hunting anywhere outside Wisconsin.

“The technical term to describe this is hot air. It’s lawyers’ talk, but without any empirical foundation. Is lawyers’ talk a good reason for a district court to issue or maintain an injunction?” said Easterbrook.

The tribes argue they have created a rigorous permitting system that will only allow trained marksmen to hunt at night in designated areas, similar to the way the state allows it. But the state says night hunting is inherently dangerous, and the tribal program will increase the likelihood of accidents.

A ruling in the case could come at any time.