President Barack Obama’s presidency has been a constant feature of executive overreach, which is clearly seen in his penchant for grabbing land for the federal government.
After Obama seized over 1.5 millions of acres of land in Utah and Nevada toward the end of December, that put the total amount of land and water added under his presidency at 554,590,000 acres of land and water, a record amount for any president.
Gary Gregg, who directs the University of Louisville’s McConnell Center, wrote in The Hill that the Antiquities Act, which is what gives presidents the authority to seize land, was used “sparingly” until Bill Clinton used it to declare 5.7 millions of acres of land under the federal government’s authority. George W. Bush built on that to seize 214,800,000 acres of water, and then Obama seized more than both Clinton and Bush combined.
“What would the Founding Fathers have thought of a national government that empowers an individual to take land without congressional action or local control?” Gregg wrote. “Well, they may not have recognized it as a free government at all. To Madison and other key Framers, the very definition of tyranny was the concentration of powers. Not even the most executive power friendly member of the Constitutional Convention would have counseled giving such power to any individual or group.”
Instead, Gregg suggests that the Antiquities Act should be modified so localities, Congress and the president could work together and hear the people’s input before simply declaring such land the property of the federal government.
The Republicans are already preparing to fight, as Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) has pledged to work to repealing the Antiquities Act altogether and will work with Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and the incoming Trump administration to stop this kind of executive overreach.
The federal government owns most of the land out west, which creates numerous problems for people that can be read here.