“Let My People Go Fishing”

Using two “pay to play” fishing properties, one in New York and the other in Colorado, as the basis for his scholarly article for Syracuse University’s legal journal, third-year law student Nathaniel Amendola proposes that such properties should give back in his paper “Let My People Go Fishing: Applying the Law of ‘Givings’ to Private Fishing Preserves, Exclusive Fishing Rights, and State-Stocked Rivers.”

At the basis of the theory is the Fifth Amendment’s takings clause which requires the federal and state governments provide just compensation to any land owner whose land is taken by eminent domain.  The converse is the givings clause, where the government bestows a benefit to a private entity, such as the thousands of government stocked fish running through both properties.  As a citizen deserves compensation, so does the government, argues Amendola.