Many of the headlines prior to and during this session of the Indiana Legislature regarding constitutional amendments have dealt with the issue of same-sex marriage.
Yet there’s another proposed constitutional amendment that shares a similar status to the one regarding a ban on same-sex marriages. A proposed amendment that would guarantee Hoosiers the right to hunt, fish and farm needs to receive second approval by the Legislature in order to make it on the 2014 ballot.
Another shared characteristic: Like same-sex marriage, there are already laws on the books covering hunting, fishing and to some extent, farming in Indiana.
There have been a couple news stories out of Indianapolis about the hunting-fishing-farming constitutional amendment, but it does not gain Page One status as does an issue like same-sex marriage.
The state Senate’s agriculture committee had scheduled a public hearing on the proposal last week but postponed it until this week after using its meeting time on unrelated bills, The Associated Press reported Jan. 28.
Republican Sen. Brent Steele of Bedford says he is sponsoring the amendment in reaction to animal-rights activists who he believes are trying to interfere with legal hunting and livestock production. Steele’s resolution calls hunting and farming a valued part of Indiana’s heritage.
Both the Senate and the House approved the proposed amendment during the 2011 session. If the same version is approved by lawmakers this year, it would go before voters for a statewide referendum in 2014.
What this proposal points out is that there are some issues that should be left to the evolution of law. It would be extremely difficult if not impossible to legislate away the ability to practice agriculture, particularly livestock operations, or the right to legally hunt or fish.
A look at Indiana’s Constitution shows many times where it had to be changed to reflect changes in our society, particularly with treatment to minorities.
Changing the constitution should not be done on a whim. A good example of an amendment gone bad is the one that mandated property tax caps, which was approved by voters in 2010. These caps, pushed by then-Gov. Mitch Daniels, are proving detrimental to cities and towns and schools, just as many predicted they would prior to enactment. Now it is going to be difficult to remove that from the constitution.
Some have suggested that the amendment banning same-sex marriage should be delayed by the Legislature until after the U.S. Supreme Court takes up potentially landmark cases on the issue.
The proposed amendment on the right to hunt, fish and farm should be left to die from inactivity.