Bill > S2226

This bill requests the Supreme Judicial Court, the highest court in Massachusetts, to provide its opinion on a legal question concerning a proposed law, House No. 753, which aims to preserve public trust rights in land affected by ocean erosion. Specifically, the bill seeks to determine if House No. 753, if passed, would violate Article X of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights and the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The proposed law, House No. 753, would amend Chapter 91 of the General Laws to ensure that if a barrier beach, a type of coastal land that protects inland areas, naturally shifts inland due to erosion and encroaches onto areas that were previously the bottom of a Great Pond (a natural or artificial pond or lake owned by the Commonwealth) or other public land, that portion of the barrier beach would remain in public ownership. The order is being made because there is significant uncertainty about the constitutionality of this proposed change, and a decision is needed before the legislative session ends.