Salt Lake Tribune Guest Commentary: Van Dam: Utah’s Land Grab Ripoff

Are there any armchair "legal eagles" out there in Weber County Forum Land who can produce some legal authority to refute Mr. Van Dam sensible admonition?

Early Utahns accepted this deal with the disclaimer clearly stated twice in the Enabling Act, in Section 3 and again in Section 12. The latter specifically gave Utah over a million acres, and then again stated, "The said State of Utah shall not be entitled to any further or other grants of land for any purpose than as expressly provided in the Act."

Salt Lake Tribune - Paul Van Dam
Van Dam: Utah’s land grab ripoff
April 6, 2013

Section 3. "...the people inhabiting said proposed State [Utah] do agree and declare that they forever disclaim all right and title to the unappropriated public lands lying within the boundaries thereof; 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..."
Section 12. "The said State of Utah shall not be entitled to any further or other grants of land for any purpose than as expressly provided in this act; and the lands granted by this section shall be held, appropriated, and disposed of exclusively for the purposes herein mentioned, in such manner as the Legislature of the State may provide."

Utah Government Archives
Statehood Enabling Act
July 16, 1894

We'd like to belatedly put the spotlight on Saturday's most-excellent Salt Lake Tribune guest editorial, in which Utah's former State Attorney General makes mincemeat of the persistent but knuckle-headed argument of some in Utah State and Federal Government, who assert at the top of their lungs that the State of Utah has some legitimate claim of right, title or interest to some 20 million acres of federal lands which were retained and withheld from Utah state ownership by the federal government as a condition for  Utah statehood, pursuant to terms of the Utah Territorial Government's 1894 Enabling Act:

• Van Dam: Utah’s land grab ripoff

Read The Act yourselves, O Gentle Ones, and you be the judge of whether it contains any promises to convey to Utah these retained federal lands, either express or implied (or written in tea leaves):

• 1894 Enabling Act

2012 Sagebrush Rebellion

During the 2012 General Session the state legislature passed Rep. Ken Ivory's "2012 Sagebrush Rebellion-style" H.B. 148, which, among other things, sets a drop-dead federal deadline, "requiring" "the United States to extinguish title to public lands and transfer title to  those public lands to the state on or before December 31, 2014." Presumably, assuming that this isn't merely "idle talk," this would possibly trigger the filing of a lawsuit at some future date, once the federal government predictably ignores this childish, frivolous and (yes) idiotic and Utah legislatively-imposed "crisis point."

As Mr. Van Dam says, "Utah taxpayers have just been scammed, and a lot of money is about to be wasted."

So what about it, WCF readers?  Are there any armchair "legal eagles" out there in Weber County Forum Land who can produce some legal authority to refute Mr. Van Dam fact-based and sensible admonition?