Robert Gehrke: Utah Fires Up New Sagebrush Rebellion Against Federal Control of Land

We can chalk it all this wackiness up to the fact that it's an election year however, we suppose, in a state where anti-fed smack talk is always the rage, and passage of crackpot bills is always a big plus (nay, even a necessity), for any "respectable" GOP candidate's resume

The people inhabiting this State do affirm and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries hereof, and to all lands lying within said limits owned or held by any Indian or Indian tribes, and that until the title thereto shall have been extinguished by the United States, the same shall be and remain subject to the disposition of the United States, and said Indian lands shall remain under the absolute jurisdiction and control of the Congress of the United States..

Utah Constitution, Article 3, Section 2
Right to public domain disclaimed
May 8, 1895

I think it’s unlikely that the courts are going to buy the argument, In part because of the broad authority that [Congress has] held over the public lands, in part because the state-enabling legislation contains two express disclaimers of the public lands by the state.

Robert Keiter, law professor, University of Utah
Utah fires up new Sagebrush Rebellion against federal control of land
March 3, 2012

Republicans are living in a fantasy world, and the move is an attempt to help the Legislature’s "corporate friends make a quick buck." It’s part of the far right’s quixotic quest to pretend that Utah did not — as part of its decision to join the United States — give up its claims to federal lands.

Stephen Bloch, Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance attorney
Utah fires up new Sagebrush Rebellion against federal control of land
March 3, 2012

It’s going to be laughed out of court. We have this rigidity in Utah that only makes us a laughing stock … and it alienates us from the global marketplace."

Pat Shea, Salt Lake City attorney
Utah fires up new Sagebrush Rebellion against federal control of land
March 3, 2012

In the aftermath Utah House Rep. Stephen G. Handy's half-baked legal analysis which appeared in Thursday's Standard-Examiner, we'll put the spotlight on this morning's Robert Gehrke column, which rounds up a body of informative commentary concerning the Utah GOP legislative majority's quixotic 2012 effort to set the stage for condemnation of vast tracts of federal lands under the state power of eminent domain, pursuant to a "package of bills passed during the 2012 legislative session, demanding that the federal government surrender ownership to the state of more than 30 million acres of federal land."

Despite state constitutional provisions explicitly providing that "[t]he people inhabiting this State do affirm and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries hereof," the absolutely shameless majority party feel quite alright hanging their hat on the pathetic legal theory that the federal government somehow impliedly promised to convey these lands back to the State of Utah, once again, despite express constitutional language to the contrary.

We can chalk it all this wackiness up to the fact that it's an election year however, we suppose, in a state where anti-fed smack talk is always the rage, and passage of crackpot bills is inevitably a big plus (nay, even a necessity), for any "respectable" GOP candidate's resume.

Sodden query: Who's gonna be expected to pick up the tab, once these frivolous property condemnation lawsuits actually get to court?

Take a wild guess, Utah taxpayers.