PROPOSED BILL: OUR RIGHT TO PUBLIC LANDS ACCESS
Congressional Authority usurped!!!!!
From:
Local Land Control And The United States Constitution
Local Land Control And The United States Constitution
From a February 7, 1995, speech by Tim Binder
Tim is an attorney with the U.S. Forest Service Office of General
Counsel in Portland.
((Emphasis by website owner))
“The Property Clause
The Constitution provides, in Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2:
The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needful
Rules and Regulations respecting the Territory or other Property
belonging to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.”
“In yet an earlier case, the Supreme Court stated in reference to the
Property Clause language:
To confine the language of the Constitution, therefore, to a mere
delegation to Congress
of a power to sell the territory, or to examine
and prepare it for sale, is evidently an unwarranted restriction upon it. United States v. Gratiot, 39 U.S. 526, 10 L.Ed. 573 (1843). The Court in that case stated that the Federal government could lease
public land within a State.”
“The Court noted the following:
[F]rom an early period in the history of the government it has been
the practice of the President to order, from time to time, as the
exigencies of the public service required, parcels of land belonging to
the United States to be reserved from sale and set apart for public uses.”
“Again, in United States v. San Francisco, 310 U.S. 16, 29, 84 L.Ed 1050, 1059 (1940), the Supreme Court stated:
The power over the public land thus intrusted to Congress is without limitations. "And it is not for the courts to say how that trust shall be administered. That is for Congress to determine." quoting Light v. United States, 220 U.S. 523, 537, 55 L.Ed 570 (1911)”
“It has been stated early. It has been stated often. It bears repeating today. The Property Clause grants to Congress the constitutional authority to manage and control public land. Such authority does not depend upon a State ceding the land to the Federal government. The authority to manage such lands derives, not from Art. 1, Section 9, Clause 16, but from Art. 4, Section 3, Clause 2 (the Property Clause).
Such authority exists as a matter of Constitutional law. Such authority is not new in our constitutional system. It is part of the warp and woof of our constitutional system. The authority over public lands resides in the Federal government.”
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