The First Circuit Court of Appeals has sided with Bar Harbor in the long-running lawsuit over the town's daily cap for cruise ship passengers. But the panel of justices is sending the case back to federal district court for further arguments on one key point. That leaves open a path for businesses to persuade the court to rule in their favor.
Almost three years into the legal battle over Bar Harbor's limit to cruise ship disembarkations, a panel of First Circuit justices has sided with the town — but a lower court will have to decide if the town should have used a less restrictive approach.
At the center of the case is an ordinance creating a 1,000-person daily cap for cruise ship passengers entering Bar Harbor. The ordinance was passed in a local referendum vote in 2022, and a group of local businesses filed suit shortly afterward.
Though the First Circuit decision does not side with the businesses, it questions the lower court's analysis of the commerce clause of the U.S. Constitution.
The lower court will now determine how much the ordinance restricts the number of tourists in town, how it impacts other cruise ship ports in Maine and weigh if potential benefits could be achieved by less restrictive means.
Since the ordinance took effect this year, cruise ship traffic in Bar Harbor is down significantly.
