Florida fishermen challenge unconstitutional fishery management councils

Mobile, AL; July 22, 2024: Dominick and James Russo have filed a lawsuit against the Department of Commerce, challenging the constitutionality of a catch limit rule adopted by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council drastically limiting their business.   

The Russo brothers have been fishing since they were teenagers and now run FFC Seafood in Sarasota, Florida. Their largest source of income is gag grouper due to its popularity with high-end restaurants.  

But in 2021, a new rule known as Amendment 56 cut the amount of gag grouper the Russos can legally catch by over 80 percent. Not only did the rule lower total amount of gag that can be caught, but it also shifted the allocation toward recreational fishermen and away from commercial.

“Amendment 56 has devastated our clients’ livelihoods and represents troubling overreach by unelected officials,” said Michael Poon, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation. “The Constitution requires the president to appoint key federal officials. Members of the regional fishery management councils are improperly appointed and unaccountable, rendering their actions, including this harmful regulation, unlawful.” 

The rule, issued by the National Marine Fisheries Service, was ordered by the Gulf of Mexico Fishery Management Council, one of eight regional councils made up of state and federally appointed bureaucrats. This multi-layered system of fishery regulation, run by council members not properly appointed according to the Appointments Clause of the Constitution, shields council members from accountability, despite granting them the federal government’s power.  

The case is Russo v. Raimondo, filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Alabama.