Property Rights, Land, and State Sovereignty Resolution
by the Constitution Party National Committee – March 2002 – Charleston, South Carolina
Whereas, Article IV, Section 4 of the Constitution of the United States of America guarantees to every State in the Union a republican form of government, and
Whereas, James Madison identified the very definition of tyranny to be the unification of the legislative, executive and judicial powers of government, and
Whereas, the present Federal administrative agencies and bureaucracies combine these three distinct and separate powers of government, virtually destroying all constitutionally protected rights and remedies formally available to its sovereign citizens, including a republican form of government within each state, and
Whereas, Article I Section 8 clause 17 of the Constitution of the United States of America restricts the authority of the federal government over lands within admitted states of the Union to those purchased with the consent of the legislature of that State for certain limited, specified use, and
Whereas, even before the Constitution was adopted, the admission of sovereign states of the Union on a equal footing was recognized by the Northwest Ordinance, and
Whereas, vast portions of each State’s land, by default and usurpation, have come under the asserted authority of the Federal government, and
Whereas, the usurpation and control of the state lands by federal bureaucracies, such as the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, and the Fish and Wildlife Service has caused the closing of long-established roads, the closing of hundreds of logging and lumber operations, destruction of farm land, abandonment and loss of hundreds of mining operations and ranches, and destroying access to vast recreational areas, resulting in severe economic hardship and loss of billons of dollars to the local, state and national economies, and
Whereas, this Federal tyranny has caused significant loss of local and state tax base, resulting in the reduction of basic local governmental services including police and fire protection, and
Whereas, the policies of the Federal bureaucracies on land and forest mismanagement which include not allowing the cows to eat the grass to reduce fire hazards have set the Western states on fire, endangering and taking life and property, and
Whereas, the federal government is extending the unconstitutional usurpation and land-grabbing in all fifty states through the implementation of various environmental legislative and administrative programs including but not limited to the so-called Clean Air and Water Act, the Environmental Protection Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Wetlands Wildlife, and Wilderness legislation, the Heritage Rivers, Monuments and Antiquities Act, etcetera. Therefore, let it be
Resolved that the Constitution Party supports and encourages State and local efforts to reestablish State and Constitutional control over lands within all sovereign States of the Union, and be it further
Resolved, that the Constitution Party calls upon the Federal government to cease and desist its unconstitutional usurpation and control of the lands in the sovereign states, and be it further
Resolved, that the Constitution Party calls upon the Federal government to limit its authority to lands defined by the Constitution, including Washington, D.C., territories, forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards and other needful buildings which are purchased with the consent of the State legislatures.
Return to main 2012-2016 Platform and Resolutions page.
to the American Constitutionist
Support the Constitution Party