WASHINGTON _ In its latest legal salvo against California, the Department of Justice announced Monday it is filing suit against a state law that tries to give California power to veto sales of federal land to private interests.
The state law, enacted in March 2017, gave state officials the right to purchase any federal land in California the U.S. government tries to sell to private ownership. About 50 percent of California is public land.
Justice officials argue the state law is unconstitutional under the supremacy clause, which says when state laws conflict with federal laws the federal law is the ultimate authority. Federal law says the Bureau of Land Management can select public lands for sale if it meets certain criteria.
The litigation marks the second time in a month that McGregor Scott, U.S. attorney for California's eastern district, has helped launch a lawsuit against the state. On March 7, Scott joined Attorney General Jeff Sessions at a California Peace Officers' Association meeting to announce a lawsuit against California's sanctuary policies for undocumented immigrants.
In 2017, California filed 24 lawsuits against the Trump administration. Involved were 17 separate issues, including immigration, environmental protection and the president's proposed U.S.-Mexico border wall.
The latest Justice litigation helps bolster Trump's standing with GOP lawmakers in Utah, Wyoming, Idaho and other western states who have long complained about excessive federal landholdings in their states. Some of the lawmakers have called for federal legislation that would transfer federal public lands to the state or private ownership.
California passed its own legislation after then-Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced legislation that would have transferred millions of acres of federal land to private or state ownership. He withdrew the bill in February 2017 after public pressure from hunting and fishing groups.
Why the Trump administration chose this moment to sue California over the law is not entirely clear, given the administration's stated opposition to transfers of federal land to other interests.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, a former congressman from Montana, has repeatedly said he opposes the sale of federal lands. His goal, he said, is to work with the states to open up recreational opportunities on public lands.
"We're not transferring or selling public land," Zinke said in a January interview with conservative radio commentator Josh Tolley. "What we're doing is we're working with the states to open up recreation opportunities. We don't want to be in an adversarial role. And that's been the tension out west, is that the local voice, communities, have been ignored. And that's not right."
David Hayes, a former Interior Department official in the Clinton and Obama administrations, said "it is odd" the Justice Department would sue California over a law that will only become operative if the Trump administration does something it says it won't do.
"Whatever the motivation, I suspect that Attorney General Xavier Becerra will have something to say about state prerogatives that attach should the feds renege on their promises," said Hayes, who directs the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center, a group that assists attorneys general on environmental litigation.
California officials assert they have the authority to implement the state legislation because they wouldn't be preventing sales of the land. Instead, they would prevent private purchasers from recording deeds to the land.
Recording a deed is how a purchaser gives public notice of the right to a parcel of land. Without a recorded deed many banks will not lend money to buy or develop the property and a purchaser cannot get title insurance, making a recorded deed much more valuable than an unrecorded deed.
The land recording system is set up under state and not federal law, so California officials argue the state is within its rights to pass laws regarding recorded deeds.
