People v. Rinehart

Opinion

WERDEGAR, J.

California was shaped by the search for gold. In time, the state’s other natural treasures—its waters and wildlife, its forests and coastlines—proved similar draws. We consider here a conflict arising from the competing desires to exploit and to preserve these various resources. The People assert the state may, in pursuit of protecting fish habitats and the quality of the state’s waterways, temporarily ban a particular method of gold mining pending adoption of suitable regulahons. Defendant Brandon Lance Rinehart, convicted of engaging in the banned mining technique,…