State & Local Government Policy, Business and Technology

Trump Administration Sues California Over Public Land Rights

Governing: In its latest legal salvo against California, the Department of Justice announced Monday it is filing suit against what it branded an "extreme" state law that tries to give California power to veto sales of federal land to private interests.

The state law, which was signed in 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 and because it discriminates against land sales by the federal government specifically.

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