634                                       LAWS OF MARYLAND                            [Ch. 4

Article 23 of the Declaration of Rights of
the Maryland Constitution and the Equal
Protection Clause of the Fourteenth
Amendment of the United States
Constitution.

The Bruce decision reasoned that the
statutory classification could not be
upheld because it bore no reasonable
relation to the public interest. The court
declared that:

"...(T)he crab and oyster resources
found in the tidal waters are common
property held in trust by the State
for all of its citizens, no matter in
which part of the State they may
live. To that extent an otherwise
legitimate classification of
residents which may be made for many
purposes, cannot be made if it
affects a right (in this case to the
enjoyment and use of natural
resources) which, as citizens of this
State, they enjoy equally." 261 Md.
at 606.

The residential and territorial
restrictions of Article 66C, section 262
contain the same constitutional infirmities
as the crabbers license and tonging
statutes and, therefore, are omitted.

The reference to "citizen" is proposed for
deletion and "resident" is substituted
therefor to maintain consistency with
section 4—704(b) which requires a person to
he a resident to obtain a commercial net
license.

The word "finfish" is used instead of
"fish" in light of the definition in this
title of "fish" in order to retain the
present legislative intent to confine the
scope of this section to finfish.

The only other changes made are in style.

1-704. LICENSE TO OPERATE NETS AND SEINES FOR
COMMERCIAL FISHING.