Federal lands
These powers have been recognized in a long series of United States Supreme Court decisions.
[2][3] In Article I, Section 8, Clause 17 the United States Constitution empowers the federal government with exclusive legislative authority like that exercised for Washington D.C. over "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.
[6] The United States Supreme Court has upheld the broad powers of the federal government to deal with federal lands, for example having unanimously held in Kleppe v. New Mexico[7] that "the complete power that Congress has over federal lands under this clause necessarily includes the power to regulate and protect wildlife living there, state law notwithstanding.
"[8] Nevertheless, "because the United States is a legal title holder, the federal government is a necessary part in all leases and dispositions of resources including trust land.
[10] During the Revolutionary War, military bounty land was promised to soldiers who fought for the colonies.
The Land Ordinance of 1785 instructed a geographer to oversee this work as undertaken by a group of surveyors.
[18] These include cash entry, credit, homestead, Indian, military warrants, mineral certificates, private land claims, railroads, state selections, swamps, town sites, and town lots.
[19] Between 1781 and 2018, the federal government divested itself of estimated 1.29 billion acres (5.2 million km2) of public domain land.
[6] Beginning in the early 20th century, U.S. government policy shifted from disposing of public land to retaining and managing it.
[6] The largest single DOD-owned, all-land tract is the 2.3-million-acre White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.
[27] Together, the BLM, FWS, NPS, Forest Service, and DOD manage about 96% of federal land.
[6] The remaining 4% of federal land is controlled by other federal agencies, including the United States Army Corps of Engineers, the Bureau of Reclamation, the United States Postal Service, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the U.S. Department of Energy.
