A Rumford attorney who wants to build a casino in Oxford County is suing a long list of businesses and Maine cities to gain the right to petition for signatures on commercial property.
Seth Carey, owner of Evergreen Mountain Enterprises LLC, the organization sponsoring the casino drive, is suing the state’s three largest shopping malls, as well as Wal-Mart, Irving Oil and Scarborough-based Hannaford Bros., for the right to petition on their properties, according to the Bangor Daily News. Carey is also suing Bangor, Augusta, Lewiston and Portland to prevent the cities from restricting where petitioners can gather signatures.
Carey’s lawsuit, filed Nov. 20 in Oxford County Superior Court, argues that people have a First Amendment right to petition freely on property open to the public, according to the paper. He needs to submit 55,000 valid signatures to the state by Jan. 12 to place the casino question before voters next November.