Utah Sues over Federal Government's Conservationalist Land Grab

By Douglas V. Gibbs

The state of Utah recently filed a lawsuit against the federal government over an Obama administration plan to make millions of acres of undeveloped land in the West eligible for federal wilderness protection.

The claim is that the federal government is trying to save crucial environments through government protections that will conserve unique wildlife and lands. The first question that arises is, "Where in the Constitution does it give the federal government the authority over state lands?"

Many will cite Theodore Roosevelt's programs, which sided emphatically with the conservationists. His legislative efforts were devoted to changing the way America used its land, especially in the West. The Newlands Act of 1902, for example, placed the federal government in an activist role in the areas of water management and reclamation.

The president, with the aid and encouragement of Chief Forester Gifford Pinchot, worked to preserve more than 170 million acres, mostly in the West, in the forms of national parks and monuments.

Woodrow Wilson, also a progressive, and a naturalist, signed The National Park Service Organic Act which established the National Park Service, an agency of the United States Department of the Interior.

And though the intention is good, and those acts were signed into law, they were done so unconstitutionally. Once again, there is no authority for the federal government to seize state land, except for the purpose of post offices, military bases, and other like facilities. If the necessity for federal influence on the conservation level is so important, then there should be an amendment granting those powers to the federal government, ratified, of course, by 3/4 of the state legislatures.

Based on the Constitution, Utah should win their case against the federal government's land grab, if the courts are willing to abide by the limiting principles of the U.S. Constitution.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Utah Suing Feds Over Plan to Protect Lands - NewsMax