Tag Archives: Bill Bright

Cape May fishermen at center of major U.S. Supreme Court case

Wayne Reichle, owner of Lund’s Fisheries.

On Wednesday, the justices heard testimony in Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo. The justices are deciding whether to uphold or overrule the four-decades old Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council decision. The justices heard three-and-a-half hours of oral argument this week. Multiple media outlets reported the justices asked questions indicating that the Chevron doctrine is unlikely to remain fully intact. The fishermen are challenging the National Marine Fisheries Service for requiring the herring industry to take on the cost of paying observers. Who is supporting the fisherman and why? The fishermen are represented by the Cause of Action Institute and New Civil Liberties Alliance. Groups such as the Cato Institute, Christian Employers Alliance, and members of Congress such as Sen. Ted Cruz and Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, have filed briefs in support of the fishermen.  more, >>click to read<< 12:15

How a Supreme Court case involving herring fishermen affects the Little Sisters of the Poor

A Supreme Court case being argued this week could have significant implications for a decade-long religious liberty battle fought by the Little Sisters of the Poor. The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments this week in Loper Bright Enterprises, Inc. v. Gina Raimondo, a case challenging the authority of the federal administrative state to dictate certain rules and regulations related to federal laws. Okay, so how are the Little Sisters involved? Though the involvement of a group of Catholic religious would seem unlikely in a case such as this, the Little Sisters of the Poor are participants in the Loper case, with the nuns having filed a friend of the court brief last year in support of the fishermen. more, >>click to read<< 12:46

A group of herring fishermen may put a hook in the Biden Administration’s power

Even far out on the open water, where Bill Bright navigates his 140-foot fishing trawler in search of the Atlantic herring that school below the surface, the federal government always feels startlingly within reach. Bright and other captains alert regulators before they push off. A reporting system pings the boat’s location throughout the day. And sometimes Bright must bring a government mandated federal observer on board whose job is to collect data about the catch and ensure the rules are followed. Bright doesn’t mind those regulations. But he and his fellow fishermen are adamantly opposed to a 2020 federal rule that requires them to pay the salary of the observers they bring aboard – adding $700 a day to their costs.  ”But this is not politics to me. This is about what’s right. This is about what’s right for our fishery.” photos, more, >>click to read<< 11:01

A Small Fish and an Uncollected Fee Add Up to Big-Government Challenge at the Supreme Court

The case could undercut the power of federal regulators on major issues including air pollution and securities fraud. It also exemplifies the way many of the high court’s biggest fights are born these days — driven less by the practical aims of the litigants than by the ideological vision of the interest groups behind the suits. The fight concerns a federal requirement that some herring boats host government-approved observers aboard their vessels and cover an estimated $710 daily cost. The fisherman say that would be an onerous burden on their family-owned businesses — so onerous they are suing even though the fee is on hold and might never kick in. “We have not had to pay. We’re just nervous about this hanging over our head,” said Bill Bright in an interview in Cape May, New Jersey, where he runs his two-vessel fishing business. “So we feel that we need to solve this problem now.” Photos, >>click to read<< 11:14

Courts threaten to sink federal fishery monitoring

NOAA suffered a major blow in February when a three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Louisiana threw out a rule that would have required charter boats in the Gulf of Mexico to be equipped with electronic monitors to report fish catches. Fishermen complained that the devices would cost them as much as $3,000 per boat. And the agency may be poised for an even bigger setback from the Supreme Court. Justices last month said they would take up a case that could decide whether NOAA has the legal authority to force New England herring fishermen to hire third-party contractors to monitor their fishing at a cost of up to $700 per day. >click to read< 13:55

How this family-run seafood business banded together to stay afloat for the next generation

When the Bright kids were young, Bill was away at sea often, “probably 150 days a year,” he says. One Sunday he came home from a fishing trip in New England, gathered the family around the table, and floated an idea for a new adventure, a restaurant. Well, not a restaurant-restaurant, but a kitchen trailer parked by the docks on Richardson Channel, with picnic tables where customers could see the freshness of the fish, guts and scales and all, being butchered a few feet away. “The kids were into it right away.” Bill and Michelle, a Temple-trained journalist and ace home cook, opened Hooked Up Seafood in 2010 and quickly developed a reputation of excellence. photos, >click to read< 07:48

This Summer Seafood Shack Isn’t Your Everyday Jersey Shore Restaurant

It’s Fourth of July, and Bill Bright, a 60-year-old commercial fisherman who owns the best seafood restaurant between Atlantic City and Cape May, hopes nobody wants to buy crabs today. Bright looks like Joe Biden’s outdoorsy younger brother and runs Hooked-Up Seafood in Wildwood, the southernmost barrier island of the Jersey Shore, with his wife, Michelle, and four kids.,, Bright’s boats, Retriever and Defiance, run up and down the coast from Virginia to Long Island, fishing off the continental shelf. Whatever they catch winds up on the menu at Hooked-Up: yellowfin and big-eye tunas, mahi, swordfish, once in a while some prized John Dory. Fueled by word of mouth and devoted repeat business, Hooked-Up has blossomed over the last nine seasons into the place in-the-know locals go for seafood.> click to read<16:30