We call for a return to the states and to the people all lands which are held by the federal government without authorization by the Constitution. 

THE PRINCIPLES

US Constitution, Article I Section 8 Clause 17: 

“Congress shall have power …To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, Dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings…” 

Article IV Section 4: 

“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government.” 

Article IV Section 4 Clause 3:

“New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union.” 

THE PROBLEM

Federal government overreach regarding public lands continues to prevent states and the people of the states from using and benefiting from resources within their state boundaries.

THE SOLUTION

Acknowledge that each state’s membership in the Union is voluntary and that they are sovereign states within the Union. 

Support the equal footing doctrine, co-equal with the original thirteen states, for all states coming into and having entered the Union as states. 

• Northwest Ordinance of 1787 (re-enacted under Constitutional authority in 1789) defined that all new states appropriately admitted will enter the nation on an equal footing with the original 13 states. 

THE CONSTITUTION PARTY COMMITTMENT

We will oppose:

• Efforts to confer statehood upon the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico or expand statehood beyond the current fifty states. 
• Efforts to confer statehood on the District of Columbia or any representation in Congress comparable to that of an independent state in the federal union violates the Article I Section 8 Clause 17.

Our elected officials will work to repeal any laws or regulations which transfer powers from states to federal agencies, in violation of the Tenth Amendment.

We will work to return all lands taken unlawfully by the federal government and return them to the state from which they were taken.

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