Kamiwan Oliver and her family raise chickens for their eggs and meat to lessen the burden of grocery bills on their tight family budget. The Olivers’ tidy coop sits in their backyard, and each day their flock provides the family with delicious and nutritious food. But since the city of Calais, Maine, decided to pass a chicken ban disguised as a property regulation, the Olivers’ ability to feed themselves is in jeopardy.

In June 2024, Calais passed an ordinance restricting backyard chickens. Property owners must meet a minimum lot size requirement, a setback requirement, and rules about where and how chicken coops may be built. The ordinance also imposes a six-chicken limit for a single-family lot. Combined, these rules make it so that few people living in the town have either the ability or resources to keep chickens as a meaningful food source, rather than just a hobby.

Try as they might, there is nothing the Olivers can do to comply with the ordinance. Their quarter-acre lot is too small by half, and they can’t move their coop to any other location on the property. And even if the Olivers could comply with the property conditions, a half dozen chickens cannot provide enough eggs to meet the family’s needs.  

But there is hope for the Olivers in Maine’s state constitution.

Maine is the first state in the country to recognize a “right to food.” Article I, section 25 of the Maine Constitution guarantees Mainers the right to “grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being.”

Mainers’ right to food doesn’t mean much if towns can make it impossible to do something as simple as keeping chickens. The Maine Constitution protects the right of citizens to use their property to feed themselves and their families as they see fit, free from arbitrary government control or regulation.

That is why Kamiwan and her family have joined forces with the Institute for Justice. They have filed a lawsuit asking the court to find that the city’s restrictions on their ability to humanely raise chickens violate the Maine Constitution.   

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Maine’s Right to Food Amendment

In 2021, Maine ratified a first in the nation constitutional amendment enshrining Mainers’ “natural, inherent, and unalienable right to . . . grow, raise, harvest, produce and consume the food of their own choosing for their own nourishment, sustenance, bodily health and well-being[.]”[1] This “Right to Food” Amendment was passed by large, bipartisan majorities in the legislature and was subsequently approved by 61% of voters.[2] Its passage also marks the first time an individual right has been added to the Maine Constitution in over 200 years.[3]

An earlier version of the Amendment was introduced in 2015 but did not gain enough legislative support to go to the voters. However, the COVID-19 pandemic’s devastating supply chain disruptions highlighted the wisdom of letting people provide for themselves. The Amendment’s framers intended to enshrine a robust individual right to feed oneself and one’s family without government interference.

Advocates repeatedly likened the right to food to fundamental rights such as the freedom of speech and the right to bear arms. The Amendment embodies the live-and-let-live ethos for which Maine is so well known and constitutionalizes the farm-to-table lifestyle that has been core to Maine throughout its history.

Kamiwan Oliver and Her Family Raise Chickens

Kamiwan Oliver is a homemaker and  mom of three—ages 5, 10, and 11—who is pursuing her business degree in a part-time online program. She and her husband, Paul, are lifelong Mainers of modest means. Kamiwan and Paul have not experienced a time in their life together where they haven’t relied on some form of government assistance to supplement their income.

The Olivers began keeping chickens in October 2023, when family friends left Maine and gave them the birds. COVID grocery shortages were severe in Maine, so the Olivers were eager to obtain another food source.

The chickens have dramatically improved the Olivers’ lives. Although the Olivers remain food insecure, things are better now that they can rely on their flock of 19 chickens to produce approximately 12 eggs per day. As a result, the kids have a more nutritious start to their day, and Paul has improved his health thanks to the active lifestyle that comes with maintaining a flock of chickens.

In addition to harvesting eggs, the Olivers occasionally cull birds from their flock for their meat. Even if the Olivers could comfortably afford eggs and meat from the grocery store, they would still raise their own because they believe the eggs and meat are better than what is commercially available.  

The City of Calais Bans Chicken Ownership

Unfortunately, the passage of the Right to Food Amendment also inspired municipalities to pass ordinances regulating chickens and other livestock. In June 2024, the city of Calais passed its “Domesticated Livestock Ordinance” as an amendment to the building code.[4] The ordinance applies to all domestic livestock that are on a property with a single-family dwelling.

The problem with the ordinance is that it functions as a de facto ban on owning chickens, since it imposes requirements that most Calais residents simply cannot comply with, including:

  • A minimum lot size of ½ acre to keep any domesticated fowl.
  • A minimum setback requirement for chicken coops of 20 feet from abutting property owners.
  • A prohibition on keeping coops on “the front side or street side of a lot.”
  • A prohibition on the use of “scrap, waste board, sheet metal, or similar materials as construction material” to build a coop or outdoor run.
  • A limit of six chickens or fewer per household. If a household currently legally owns more than six chickens, it may keep those chickens until they naturally die.

Altogether, the message to residents seems to be: get rid of your chickens.

Calais Chicken Keepers Object

The Olivers take great care of their flock. Their coop is well-constructed and clean, and their birds are active and well fed. The Olivers have never received even a single complaint about their chickens. So, when they learned about the ordinance, they were rightly concerned. Kamiwan and Paul attended the city council hearings on the ordinance, spoke up about its many problems, and offered solutions.

The Olivers explained that most Calais residents reside on less than half an acre and would be permanently banned from owning chickens. Additionally, the Olivers noted that they cannot relocate their coop so that it wouldn’t be in violation of the ordinance. They also emphasized that the ordinance bans the use of common coop construction materials which makes it more expensive to keep and raise chickens. And finally, they explained that the six chicken per household limit is not enough to keep up with the family’s needs. The Olivers regularly consume their entire daily collection of eggs from the 19 chickens they currently keep.

The city council was unmoved by the Olivers’ pleas and passed the ordinance anyway.

The Maine Constitution Protects the Olivers’ Right to Raise Chickens

Calais’ ban on chicken ownership is unconstitutional. The Maine Constitution protects the right of individuals to raise chickens for their eggs and meat on their own property so long as they do not infringe on the property rights of others.

The Olivers take meticulous care of their birds, and their flock hasn’t infringed on the property rights of any of their neighbors (in fact, they share eggs with them on the rare occasions when they have more than they can eat). The Olivers should be able to continue raising their chickens and providing for themselves free from unconstitutional bans disguised as zoning regulation.   

The Litigation Team

Institute for Justice Special Counsel for Litigation and DevelopmentRobert Peccola and Litigation Fellow Nick DeBenedetto represent Kamiwan Oliver and her family. They are assisted by Eden Stuart, Esq. as local counsel.

The Institute for Justice

The Institute for Justice is a non-profit, public interest law firm that protects property rights across the country. The Institute for Justice defends property owners nationwide through its Zoning Justice and Food Freedom Projects. In North Carolina, IJ is defending residential property owners who operate an animal rescue charity. In Idaho, IJ is representing the owner of a tiny home on wheels fighting a city ban. And in Wisconsin, IJ successfully stopped government efforts to prohibit home baking.

[1] Me. Const. art. I, § 25.

[2] Pierre Desrochers & Pierre Lemieux, Maine’s Mysterious New ‘Right to Food’, Regulation, Spring 2022, at 6.

[3] Lucy Weaver, What the Cluck? Backyard Chickens and Maine’s Mysterious Right to Food, 76 Me. L. Rev. 289, 305 (2024).

[4] Calais, Me., Ordinance 2024-100 (June 13, 2024).