Transfer of Federal Lands to the States
I am wondering how many RVers are aware of the movement to transfer federal lands to the states? Many western states are pushing this initiative. In Wyoming (my home state) nearly 25 million acres w...
Forum Discussion
highplainsdrifter wrote:
Here is a link to another article regarding the federal government's authority to own land:
http://www.sltrib.com/opinion/3463803-155/op-ed-lands-transfer-to-states-it
That's an interesting argument, but doesn't it strike you as a bit of a stretch? Plus, the author of this opinion piece was the Solicitor of the U.S. Department of the Interior. Would he argue otherwise?
The way I approach questions of what is or is not constitutional is by asking, "If this was the spelled out in the original drafts of the Constitution, would it have been ratified by the states?"
Assume, for the sake of this discussion, that, at the time of the founding of this country, all 50 states were in the Union. Would the Western States have ratified the Constitution had this Federal ownership of their land been clearly stated? Remember, Washington D.C., a Federal district, was supposed to be square, but Virginia withdrew it's "donation" of land to the District.
LS
