“...US Constitution says it CAN own land.”
Be a little more specific. What kind of land does the constitution say the feds can own?
land used for a legitimate government purpose
“Be a little more specific. What kind of land does the constitution say the feds can own?”
Given that the ratifying states then handed over large swathes of land to the US government, I’d have to say the original intent allowed the US government to own large swathes of land:
“Federal land ownership began when the original 13 states ceded title to more than 40% of their “western” lands (237 million acres between the Appalachian Mountains and the Mississippi River) to the central government between 1781 and 1802. Federal land acquisition from foreign countries began with the Louisiana Purchase (530 million acres) in 1803 and continued via treaties with Great Britain and Spain (76 million acres) in 1817 and 1819, respectively. Other substantial acquisitions (620 million acres), via purchases and treaties, occurred between 1846 and 1853. The last major North American land acquisition by the U.S. federal government was the purchase of Alaska (378 million acres) in 1867.”
http://www.law.umaryland.edu/marshall/crsreports/crsdocuments/RL34267_12032007.pdf
Are folks suggesting we need to give Alaska back to the Russians? Or revoke the Louisiana Purchase in 1803?
The Constitution doesn't specify so pretty much anything I would assume. Article IV, Section 3: "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."
The Constition says the govt can own land to build forts, armories, magazines, and other needful buildings. They are not supposed to be holding millions of acres of land to be kept empty because of endangered species or so it can be a wilderness area.
I think there is going to be something coming out shortly that links Harry Reid directly to kicking Mr. Bundy off the land because Reid wants to lease the land to the Chi Coms for a solar farm. Real constitutional.
This is all about states rights and also Agenda 21.
Personally I believe that no matter how this ends the genie is out of the bottle and you are going to see it flaring up in other places. Taking back rights that have either been given away or allowed to be taken away is a messy job. Its going to be controversial.
Ohhhhhh, Ohhhhhh!!!!
Mistah Kottah!!! Mistah Kottah!!!
I know, I know!!!
Ohhhhhh, Ohhhhh!!!
“I have a note from my mother!”
;-)
BTW...Here ‘tis...
I would venture a guess that this has been bastardized for so long people have just rolled over and accepted it because no one fought hard enough to nip it in the bud in the beginning...
Because of the “Equal Footing Doctrine,” which supposedly insured that all states were equal in their sovereign power...
Article I, Section 8 specified how the federal government might acquire land and the purposes for which it could be acquired from the states....
I would go on with the idea that the 10th Amendment further declared that “powers not explicitly granted to the federal government” were retained by the states and the people.
So...If there is blame to go around, it could be equally distributed between the Feds (for exploiting and intimidation) and most of the people for not paying attention to these provisions...
I am still looking for the actual parameters where the government can come in and “take”, after the fact, private land, or dictate how YOUR land is managed through ecological statutes or regulations...
That book may be as big as the tax code...
But it may give some people the direction they need to help in finding out these parameters...
Sure, the battle can be fought with guns and vacuous amounts of ammunition...Lots of deaths, lots of injuries on both sides...
And that is what the government wants, because they have the sustainability that the people do not have, much less the outrage, at this point...
I’m not here to argue the point, if there was one presented...But this is what I found and dictated over the last few minutes...
The key here is to tie in and make public outside of this website and the FoxNews crowd, that Harry Reid, his former senior advisor, who is NOW the director of the Nevada BLM...
And that there is rumors of the Chinese wanting to put up a huge solar panel “farm” in that area...
This reeks of eminent domain, but it is being implemented in another way instead of through the normal “due process” procedures...
Just my initial take...