When I attended the BLM presentation regarding Gold Butte, held at Mesquite City Hall on Feb. 9, I was hoping to get some useful information regarding the new national monument. I had some questions that I would have like to ask, but it soon became apparent that the Q & A session had dissolved into a shouting match between opposing factions.

One good thing, for me, that came out of this display was when someone shouted something to the effect. “Where do you (the BLM) get the constitutional right to tell us what we can do with this land?”

I am by no means a constitutional scholar, but the posed question motivated me to get a copy of our national constitution and read the entire document and all its amendments. Here’s what I found:

U.S. Constitution, Article IV Section 3

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…

and…

Amendment X

The powers not delegated to the United States by the constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people.

Clearly Article IV Section 3 delegates to the federal government the right to regulate public lands. It would be nice if folks who like to drape themselves in the constitution would actually read it and know what they’re talking about before shooting off their mouth in public.

 

Anthony Tubbs

Mesquite, NV