The House Resources Subcommittee on National Parks Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) made a startling claim at a Republican conference late last week: current federal control of public lands is unconstitutional.
Bishop was on a panel during the Western Republican Leadership Conference to discuss federal control of public lands in the West. After comparing the large tracts of public land that exist out West to the Soviet Union, Bishop told the conservative crowd, “I defy you to find anywhere in the Constitution where this is allowable.”
BISHOP: Federal government owns one out of every three acres in this country. If it’s west of Denver, it’s one out of every two acres. If this kind of federal control is good, then the Soviet Union should have been the Garden of Eden. But what this presents to us – and I defy you to find anywhere in the Constitution where this is allowable – but what it defines to us is – the second slide if you would – everything in red are the states that had the hardest time funding their educations system.
Listen to it:
ThinkProgress caught up with Bishop after the event to find out more about public lands’ supposed unconstitutionality. The Utah Republican told us that federal control of lands out was “never intended” to be permanent. He conceded that national parks were acceptable – “because they’re not moneymakers anyway” – but said that other public lands “could easily be developed and should be developed and there’s no reason for the federal government to keep them.”
KEYES: You mentioned that there’s not constitutional justification for federal control of [public lands]. Can you just elaborate on that a little bit?
BISHOP: The Constitution actually allows very specific reasons for the federal government having land. Almost all of those are for military purposes and like [inaudible] and stuff. The lands in the West transferred over to the federal government prior to statehood was never intended that the federal government would keep that. It was only in the early 1900s that all of a sudden the federal government changed its policy and they codified that with the [inaudible] back in the 1960s.
KEYES: Would you like to see most of that control of federal lands rolled back then?
BISHOP: There are some lands – I’d be happy to let the federal government keep all the national parks, because they’re not moneymakers anyway. We spend money on those. But there are whole other pieces of land and property that could easily be developed and should be developed and there’s no reason for the federal government to keep them.
Watch it:
Despite Rep. Bishop’s belief that he can simply declare public land ownership to be unconstitutional because he doesn’t like the amount of federal land that exists in the West, the Constitution clearly contemplates federal land ownership. Among other things, Article 4, Section 3, Clause 2 of the Constitution provides that “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 Bishop’s unfamiliarity with the plain text of the Constitution is all the more troubling considering that he is one of three founding members of the Congressional Constitution Caucus, a Republican group that prides itself on dealing with constitutional matters.
Moreover, if his suggestion that the federal government may only own “national parks” were taken to its logical conclusion, the federal government couldn’t even own the land beneath the White House unless it was declared a park.
To learn more about the importance of America’s public lands, read CAP’s new report, “The Jobs Case for Conservation: Creating Opportunity Through Stewardship of America’s Public Lands.”
Truthout Is Preparing to Meet Trump’s Agenda With Resistance at Every Turn
Dear Truthout Community,
If you feel rage, despondency, confusion and deep fear today, you are not alone. We’re feeling it too. We are heartsick. Facing down Trump’s fascist agenda, we are desperately worried about the most vulnerable people among us, including our loved ones and everyone in the Truthout community, and our minds are racing a million miles a minute to try to map out all that needs to be done.
We must give ourselves space to grieve and feel our fear, feel our rage, and keep in the forefront of our mind the stark truth that millions of real human lives are on the line. And simultaneously, we’ve got to get to work, take stock of our resources, and prepare to throw ourselves full force into the movement.
Journalism is a linchpin of that movement. Even as we are reeling, we’re summoning up all the energy we can to face down what’s coming, because we know that one of the sharpest weapons against fascism is publishing the truth.
There are many terrifying planks to the Trump agenda, and we plan to devote ourselves to reporting thoroughly on each one and, crucially, covering the movements resisting them. We also recognize that Trump is a dire threat to journalism itself, and that we must take this seriously from the outset.
Last week, the four of us sat down to have some hard but necessary conversations about Truthout under a Trump presidency. How would we defend our publication from an avalanche of far right lawsuits that seek to bankrupt us? How would we keep our reporters safe if they need to cover outbreaks of political violence, or if they are targeted by authorities? How will we urgently produce the practical analysis, tools and movement coverage that you need right now — breaking through our normal routines to meet a terrifying moment in ways that best serve you?
It will be a tough, scary four years to produce social justice-driven journalism. We need to deliver news, strategy, liberatory ideas, tools and movement-sparking solutions with a force that we never have had to before. And at the same time, we desperately need to protect our ability to do so.
We know this is such a painful moment and donations may understandably be the last thing on your mind. But we must ask for your support, which is needed in a new and urgent way.
We promise we will kick into an even higher gear to give you truthful news that cuts against the disinformation and vitriol and hate and violence. We promise to publish analyses that will serve the needs of the movements we all rely on to survive the next four years, and even build for the future. We promise to be responsive, to recognize you as members of our community with a vital stake and voice in this work.
Please dig deep if you can, but a donation of any amount will be a truly meaningful and tangible action in this cataclysmic historical moment.
We’re with you. Let’s do all we can to move forward together.
With love, rage, and solidarity,
Maya, Negin, Saima, and Ziggy