Deubelbeiss v. Commercial Fisheries Entry Commission

OPINION

MOORE, Justice.

In this case an unsuccessful applicant for a limited entry permit challenges an administrative regulation specifying the number of points awarded for availability of alternative occupations. See 20 ACC 05.-630(b)(4). We hold that the regulation’s method of ranking applicants for limited entry permits violates the equal protection rights guaranteed by the Alaska Constitution. We therefore reverse the superior court’s decision.

*488I.

Martin Deubelbeiss was a forty-year-old resident of Ninilchik, Alaska, when he applied for a Cook Inlet salmon drift gillnet fishing limited entry…