{"id":22613,"date":"2014-04-23T15:58:26","date_gmt":"2014-04-23T19:58:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=22613"},"modified":"2014-04-23T15:58:26","modified_gmt":"2014-04-23T19:58:26","slug":"how-far-do-states-rights-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/?p=22613","title":{"rendered":"How Far Do States’ Rights Go?"},"content":{"rendered":"

KWKT,com<\/a> posted a story yesterday (updated today) about the federal government’s<\/a> latest land grab. Texas Attorney General<\/a> Greg Abbott has written a letter to Bureau of Land Management<\/a> (BLM) Director Neil Kornze about a BLM potential seizure of land that rightfully belongs to Texas landowners.<\/p>\n

This is the letter:<\/p>\n

April 22, 2014<\/strong>
\n The Honorable Neil Kornze<\/strong>
\n Director<\/strong>
\n Bureau of Land Management<\/strong>
\n U.S. Department of the Interior<\/a><\/strong>
\n 1849 C Street NW, Rm. 5665<\/strong>
\n Washington, DC 20240<\/strong>
\n Dear Director Kornze:<\/strong>
\n Respect for property rights and the rule of law are fundamental principles in the State of Texas<\/a> and the United States<\/a>. When governments simply ignore those principles, it threatens the foundation of our free and prosperous society. That is why I am deeply concerned about reports that the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is considering taking property in the State of Texas and that it now claims belongs to the federal government. Given the seriousness of this situation, I feel compelled to seek answers regarding the BLM\u2019s intentions and legal authority with respect to Texas territory adjacent to the Red River.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I understand that your office is in the early stages of developing a plan\u2014known as a Resource Management Plan\/Environmental Impact Statement (RMP\/EIS)\u2014to regulate the use of federal lands along a 116-mile stretch of the Red River. As Attorney General of Texas, I am deeply troubled by reports from BLM field hearings that the federal government may claim\u2014for the first time\u2014that 90,000 acres of territory along the Red River now belong to the federal government.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Private landowners in Texas have owned, maintained, and cultivated this land for generations. Despite the long-settled expectations of these hard-working Texans along the Red River, the BLM appears to be threatening their private property rights by claiming ownership over this territory. Yet, the BLM has failed to disclose either its full intentions or the legal justification for its proposed actions. Decisions of this magnitude must not be made inside a bureaucratic black box.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Nearly a century ago, the U.S. Supreme Court<\/a> determined that the gradient line of the south bank of the Red River\u2014subject to the doctrines of accretion and avulsion\u2014was the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma. Oklahoma v. Texas, 260 U.S. 606 (1923). More recently, in 1994, the BLM stated that the Red River area was \u201c[a] unique situation\u201d and stated that \u201c[t]he area itself cannot be defined until action by the U.S. Congress<\/a> establishes the permanent state boundary between Oklahoma and Texas.\u201d Further, the BLM determined that one possible scenario was legislation that established the \u201csouth geologic cut bank as the boundary,\u201d which could have resulted \u201cin up to 90,000 acres\u201d of newly delineated federal land. But no such legislation was ever enacted.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Instead, in 2000, the U.S. Congress enacted legislation ratifying an interstate boundary compact agreed to by the State of Texas and the State of Oklahoma<\/a>. With Congress\u2019 ratification of the Red River Boundary Compact, federal law now provides that the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma is \u201cthe vegetation on the south bank of the Red River . . .\u201d\u2014not the \u201csouth geologic cut bank.\u201d Given this significant legal development, it is not at all clear what legal basis supports the BLM\u2019s claim of federal ownership over private property that abuts the Red River in the State of Texas.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This issue is of significant importance to the State of Texas and its private property owners. As Attorney General of Texas, I am deeply concerned about the notion that the BLM believes the federal government has the authority to swoop in and take land that has been owned and cultivated by Texas landowners for generations. Accordingly, I hereby request that you or your staff respond in writing to this letter by providing the following information as soon as possible:<\/strong>
\n 1. Please delineate with specificity each of the steps for the RMP\/EIS process for property along the Red River.<\/strong><\/p>\n

2. Please describe the procedural due process<\/a> the BLM will afford to Texans whose property may be claimed by the federal government.<\/strong><\/p>\n

3. Please confirm whether the BLM agrees that, from 1923 until the ratification of the Red River Boundary Compact, the boundary between Texas and Oklahoma was the gradient line of the south bank of the Red River. To the extent the BLM does not agree, please provide legal analysis supporting the BLM\u2019s position.<\/strong><\/p>\n

4. Please confirm whether the BLM still considers Congress\u2019 ratification of the Red River Boundary Compact as determinative of its interest in land along the Red River? To the extent the BLM does not agree, please provide legal analysis supporting the BLM\u2019s new position.<\/strong><\/p>\n

5. Please delineate with specificity the amount of Texas territory that would be impacted by the BLM\u2019s decision to claim this private land as the property of the federal government.<\/strong>
\n In short, the BLM\u2019s newly asserted claims to land along the Red River threaten to upset long-settled private property rights and undermine fundamental principles\u2014including the rule of law\u2014that form the foundation of our democracy. It is incumbent on BLM to promptly disclose both the process it intends to follow and the legal justification for its position.<\/strong>
\n Sincerely,<\/strong>
\n Greg Abbott<\/strong>
\n Attorney General of Texas<\/strong><\/p>\n

At least Texas has an Attorney General that is willing to stand up for the rights of its citizens.<\/p>\n

\"Enhanced<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KWKT,com posted a story yesterday (updated today) about the federal government’s latest land grab. Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has written a letter to Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Director Neil Kornze about a BLM potential seizure of land that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[6546,1116,1737,7443,933,163,7444,285],"class_list":["post-22613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-blm","tag-bureau-of-land-management","tag-oklahoma","tag-red-river","tag-supreme-court-of-the-united-states","tag-texas","tag-texas-attorney-general","tag-united-states"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22613"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22613\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22615,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22613\/revisions\/22615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rightwinggranny.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}