The Justice Department is suing California over its attempt to block the sale of federal lands within the state’s borders, CBS News’ Paula Reid reports. Fearing that President Trump and the GOP-majority Congress would move to sell off federal lands, California enacted a law in October seeking to penalize anyone who attempts to transfer federal lands.
The California law gives the state the first right to buy federal lands, to arrange for a specific buyer, as well as the ability to block the sale, donation or exchange of federal lands by the federal government or to any other person or entity. The Justice Department is calling this another “extreme” law passed by California and argues the U.S. Constitution empowers the federal government to determine when lands are sold.
The federal government owns about 640 million acres of land in the U.S. (28 percent of all land). Most of those acres are in the western U.S. The federal government owns around 46 percent of the land in California.
This is the latest in a series of battles between President Trump and California. The Justice Department also sued California last month over laws that restrict cooperation with federal immigration authorities. And California is also expecting to fight to continue to set its own emissions standards for cars to reduce emissions and pollution, under an authority granted by a waiver under the Clean Air Act.
The U.S. government says California’s law, which took effect Jan. 1, is delaying land sales — even for projects that have been in the works for years — and is depressing their value. The auction of 1.7 acres owned by the U.S. Postal Service was suspended when nobody bid, and a developer looking to purchase property at the now-closed Naval Air Station Alameda has requested a delay, the lawsuit contends.
The lawsuit also cites the sale of Army property east of San Francisco, which the state declined to purchase. The State Lands Commission has requested information about a planned property sale in Santa Barbara County to decide whether to buy first, according to the lawsuit.
California Democrats welcomed the latest fight and vowed to defend the law.
“Yet again, Donald Trump and his administration are attacking our state and our very way of life,” Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, a member of the State Lands Commission and a Democrat running for governor, said in a statement.
“Our public lands should not be on the auction block to the highest bidder,” California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, a Democrat, said in a statement. “We’re prepared, as always, to do what it takes to protect our people, our resources and our values.”
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