LSAT 133 | Section 4 | Reading Comprehension: Q6

RC Question 6 Explanation

DISCUSSION: The Fur Seal Treaty of 1910 prevented Alaska Natives from hunting sea otters. This broke their tradition.

This had the effect that the tradition was not exercised “within living memory”, and thus the Federal government didn’t grant Alaska Natives an exemption to hunt sea otters under the 1972 MMPA.

___________

1. We don’t know why the Fur Seal treaty banned the sea otter hunt. It may not have been for ecological reasons.
2. We’re not told if other animals were affected, apart from sea otters.
3. The passage never says that the Fur Seal Treaty is well known, or that it is required as a precedent for hunting bans.
   Also, laws don’t require precedents. Judgements require precedents. A hunting ban is a law, not a judgement. This answer just throws in an irrelevant legal word. 
4. The passage never mentions Russian hunters.
5. CORRECT. This is a weirdly worded answer. But it’s true that the Fur Seal Treaty helps explain why Alaska Natives didn’t have a right to their tradition for many decades: The Fur Seal Treaty banned sea otter hunting.
    
   If the Fur Seal Treaty had never existed, then it wouldn’t have been clear why Alaska Natives had stopped making things from sea otter pelts. The court upheld the tradition partly because the natives had been prevented from exercising it (lines 49-54).