The Cowboy State Daily, a Wyoming alternative media outlet that produces much of its own content, reports an effort by Wyoming officials to support a Utah lawsuit that could result in 200 million acres of FedGov land in the West being turned over to the States in which they are found.

Lovers of liberty question whether there should be any governmental ownership of any land (or the subsurface or aerial rights): anarchists argue that land should be owned by people – perhaps not even corporations. Minarchists might argue that some land (needed for courthouses and military use, and perhaps jails and prisons and roads) could be government-owned. But the truth is, in every State the FedGov owns all kinds of land. State and local and tribal governments also own a lot.

Utah is pushing back after nearly a hundred and thirty years of tolerating this situation. They are among other things arguing that the State of Utah is not truly the equal of States that have to put up with only 1-2 percent Federal land ownership. And the State is taking a little-used Constitutional method of going straight to the Supreme Court. They understand it is very much an uphill effort.

This effort is, frankly, freaking out a lot of people, including both Democrats and Republicans. The effort includes both the State’s governor and only US Representatives, and 26 members (and probably a majority) of the Legislature. All GOP types for now – in part because only 7 of 93 legislators in Wyoming are Democrats.

But “public lands” are a touchy subject. Especially in the West, with 245 million acres in Federal hands. Wyoming alone has 29.1 million acres of Federal land out of 62.3 million acres in the State. As the map below (which does NOT include Indian Reservations), it breaks the state up into a series of enclaves.

Other States have it worse: Nevada, Alaska, and Utah. This compares to Rhode Island and Connecticut, which have only 0.2% – military installations, post offices, and federal office buildings. But in Utah and Wyoming, it isn’t just the surface that the FedGov owns: it is even more “mineral rights” – the oil, gas, and much of the stuff we mine and process.

Bluntly, the western States in many ways are nothing more than tiny enclaves of private and tribal and State land surrounded by colonial Federal territory. For over the years, Congress and the Court system has decided that the FedGov is pretty much immune from having to obey State laws. Even though the FedGov is supposed to just be the agent (and servant) of the States.

The history of how we got into this mess is too long to discuss in just one commentary, so we will save that for a future series. It is a fascinating study – and yet another series of examples of how the FedGov has become master of the Fifty States. And to some degree, the world.

But for now, consider why lovers of liberty should support this effort. It is commonly understood that if we must put up with mandatory human government, smaller is better. Yes, local governments (counties, cities, townships, districts, and homeowners associations) are far from truly acceptable. They are corrupt, venial, power- and money-hungry, and nannies. State governments are even worse. But compared to the FedGov? Even idiotic State governments (California, Illinois, and New York all come to mind) are pikers compared to what the White House, Congress, and the federal Court system do to liberty. Especially when it comes to destroying and preventing peace. Both at home and abroad.

In the Western States, much of the power of the FedGov to make life miserable (poorer and more frustrating) rests in federal ownership and control of these millions of acres. The negative effect of federal laws and regulations in every aspect of life is heightened with this colonial relic. Even if just one in twenty or one in ten acres is FedGov (States like North Carolina or Michigan; South Dakota or Minnesota), it is an economic burden and means virtually everything is literally a “federal case.” There is a reason that regressives can point out how much Fed tax money (expenditures) goes to the Western States: When a large amount of real property cannot be assessed for and pay taxes? When the goods and services are purchased by Fed landowners (and other agencies) and are exempt from sales and excise taxes? When money to pay royalties on gas and oil and other minerals and on trees (timber) and grazing rent is sucked into the federal maw? Life can be and is harsher. So the FedGov sucks even more money from the States which have little federal land – to make up for this unequal and cruel impact.

People will point out that the FedGov pays a particular kind of subsidy (bribe) to county governments and States. It is called “PILT” (Payments in lieu of (property) taxes – more accurately and emotionally described by Wyoming Representative Harriet Hageman as “pennies in place of thousands”). And it does not make up for the crushing burden of federal land on local areas.

Right now, Utah just wants to let State government own and control the land in lieu of the FedGov. That is, at least, a start. But it could be a turning point in the fight to rein in the FedGov.

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