The Federal Forfeit of State Occupied Lands Declaration.
By Greg Penglis, January 5, 2025
Declaration:
The federal government is currently, illegally, unconstitutionally, occupying up to 70% of the land of certain States, mostly in the Western third of the country. Why? Because the federal government said they could, and the States have shown no initiative to take back their own land, and with it, their minerals, oil, natural gas, coal, forests, grazing lands, recreation, state parks, lakes, rivers, and anything else on state land.
The Constitution is perfectly clear on what is federal and what is state land. So in order for the federal government to lay claim to it, they had to change the meaning of the Constitution, and rationalize their new meanings in such a way as to give themselves the authority to keep 640 million acres of state land that doesn't belong to them. This conspiracy to defraud the States involves the Congress, the Administrative State departments and agencies, and the Supreme Court, all acting in concert to reinforce their collective illegal and unconstitutional actions to keep land they are prohibited from having by the Constitution.
The Constitution as written is the Supreme Law of the Land, where the States have delegated such authority to the federal government through the Constitution. The Constitution is not what the federal government "interprets" it into by changing the written words of the Constitution to suit their purposes, neither by Congress, the President, nor the Supreme Court. Here is what the Constitution says regarding what is federal land, and what is not.
"Article 1, Section 8, Enumerated Powers, Clause 17:
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 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;"
This comes from https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-1/section-8/clause-17/
Put simply, the only land the federal government has permission from the Constitution to control, is the District of Columbia or DC, and land purchased only by permission of the state legislatures, land that can only be used for Forts (military bases), Magazines (ammunition storehouses), Arsenals (weapon storehouses), dock-Yards (river, lake and coastal harbor facilities), and other needful Buildings (necessary for federal government operation).
From this tiny grant of authority properly ratified by the States in the Constitution, the federal government has occupied everything in red in the map of the States in the graphic above. That would mean that 1/3 of the United States, by the permission of state legislatures, is "Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings." That is truly irrational, and yet, here we are.
***** Therefore, to bring the federal government into compliance with the Constitution, all lands within the States, not part of the District of Columbia, nor land used for "Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings," purchased with the permission of the State Legislatures, has always belonged to the States, and by this Declaration all such land is forfeit from the federal government back to the States, since it was all an unlawful seizure and violation of the Constitution and Bill of Rights to occupy the State lands in the first place. This Declaration does not require legislation from Congress, nor the opinion of the Supreme Court, nor any executive orders, nor the actions of any Administrative agency or department, for they have proven a block to the law and an enemy of the Constitution. This Declaration therefore is self-enacting and has been in force since publication, that these lands illegally occupied, are now and forever forfeit to the States to whom these lands have always belonged.
The only acceptance therefore required of this Declaration are the occupied States themselves. Since the lands in question have always been State land, it is now just a matter of the States taking charge of their land, and removing all evidence, signs, boundaries, fences, buildings, personnel, and all evidence of federal management, agencies, departments, policies, regulations, in fact any federal presence in any form at all.
As far as military bases across the U.S., only the land directly under military bases purchased by permission of the state legislatures shall remain. All other military bases, military controlled land, firing ranges, test ranges, or any other land used by the military, are subject to negotiation with the States who have the option to close any down that do not have prior permission of their state legislatures for purchase or use, closing and removing any federal presence on such unauthorized bases.
National Parks are another consideration. Since nothing in the Constitution authorizes any nationally designated land except as stated above, there is no constitutional authority for national parks, national monuments, or national land of any kind, except for Article 1, Section 8, Clause 17. Given the incredible beauty and special nature of already designated national parks, it would be a shame not to keep, or even expand them, as they are now state parks.
Regarding American Indian lands, the Constitution does grant to the Congress the regulation of commerce among the Indian Tribes in Article I, Section 8, Clause 3, but no grant of authority from the States in the Constitution covers Indian land itself. Therefore such matters shall be left to the Indian Tribes and Nations, and the States.
State governments have always been empowered to forfeit federally occupied lands, but have so far taken no action to do so, other than Utah, which has sponsored a lawsuit in the Supreme Court asking for permission from the federal government, primarily the Supreme Court, to get federal government approval to take back land that has always been there's. This is what happens when no one reads the Constitution, believes in powers the federal government has never had, and refuses to challenge the illegally exercised control of state land. So it is up to the States, to create the legislation, regulation, procedures and policies, towards their own land clearly identifying it as State land. The Utah initiative is counter productive as it asks the Supreme Court to grant some of Utah's land back which is already by the Constitution in their possession.
Utah's partial effort to redress this grievance has been documented in this article in The Federalist.
It is also documented in this lawsuit from the State of Utah against the United States:
https://standforourland.utah.gov/
Congressional Research Service:
One of the government agencies leading the misinformation is this one. In a document titled, "Federal Land Ownership: Acquisition and Disposal Authorities. Updated March 23, 2023:" this agency made the following erroneous statement which invalidated the entire rest of the document.
"The federal government owns roughly 640 million acres, more than a quarter of the land in the United States. Four agencies—the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and National Park Service (NPS), all in the Department of the Interior, and the
U.S. Forest Service (FS) in the Department of Agriculture—administer about 95% of those lands. The lands these agencies administer are heavily concentrated in 12 western states (including Alaska)."
What makes this impossible is that the Constitution prohibits any such ownership of any acreage in the States as was explained in detail above. Since the land belongs to the States, the federal agencies and departments created to manage land they have no ownership or jurisdiction over, there is no further justification, constitutional or legal reason or ability for those agencies to exist. Therefore this Declaration directs the Congress to abolish the BLM, FWS, NPS, FS, and the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture insofar as they have any presence in the States, since they are already non-agencies per this Declaration implementing an authority that does not exist, The US Code should have their presence and all enabling legislation deleted, their budgets cancelled, and their personnel detailed to other agencies or downsized to the private sector.
Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976:
This too is a huge law, Public Law 94-579, that is now empty of any authority, justification, reason or possibility of existing, since everything it covers has never been federal land. It is a completely illegal law, and the States have every reason to defy it, and remove every federal presence and entity in every form from their States and state lands.
The Bureau of Land Management, another obsolete and illegal bureau, put out a huge report at this site:
https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/AboutUs_LawsandRegs_FLPMA.pdf
Therefore to clean up the US Code once again, this entire law, for every title and section it created, is repealed, since they have no more federal land to create policy over or manage. They never did.
"Article IV, Section 3, Clause 2:
The 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 nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State."
This again is from the site: Constitution Annotated:
https://constitution.congress.gov/browse/article-4/section-3/clause-2/
Several Supreme Court cases, and many federal and private publications have cited this clause in the Constitution as authority over land the feds have claimed, but are actually state land per Article I, Section 8, Clause 17. Where the courts and everyone else makes their mistake is in the clause, "Territory or other Property belonging to the United States." Since we are not considering the Territories in this Declaration, all that's left is "other Property belonging to the United States." This as we know can only be the land under "Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings," bought by the federal government with the permission of the state legislatures. Therefore this is the ONLY land in the States where the federal government can make ANY rules or regulations. All such Supreme Court opinions to the contrary, are contrary to the Constitution, and are therefore invalid and to be ignored as moot by the States.
Therefore it is further Declared, that all land within a State, that is not an authorized constitutionally compliant purchase, has never been federal land, and therefore no federal claim of such land ownership or control by any means, exists anywhere, and all such land has always been, is now, and in perpetuity will remain, State Land. All federal laws, regulations, policies, and court opinions over what is State Land are repealed, all agencies and departments created by such laws, regulations, policies and opinions, are abolished.
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