Paxton and TPPF launch COUNTEROFFENSIVE against Obama's Texas Land Grab

“If a man causes a field or vineyard to be grazed, and lets loose his animal, and it feeds in another man’s field, he shall make restitution from the best of his own field and the best of his own vineyard."
Exodus 22:5

We discussed Obama's attempted land grab in North Texas a year and a half ago; yesterday, TPPF filed a lawsuit against the Obama administration to push the BLM back across the Red River:



Highlights:

• BLM seizing 90,000+ acres.

• "If they're gonna do this to us, what are they gonna do to y'all?!?"

• "This is private property; deed and title."

TPPF President Brooke Rollins explains things further:

Right now, D.C. bureaucrats at the federal Bureau of Land Management are seeking to seize up to 90,000 acres of private property along over one hundred miles of the Red River inside of Texas. They are trying to appropriate homes, businesses, farms, and ranchland that have been occupied by American citizens for generations.

The Bureau of Land Management has no purpose that it will share in seizing this land — but it will ruin lives, homes, businesses, and communities if it succeeds.

Together with home and property owners all along the Red River, the Foundation's Center for the American Future today filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Texas to defend American homes and livelihoods from the depredations of Washington, D.C. The case ofAderholt et al. v. Bureau of Land Management et al. is now on the books. We will pursue it, we will fight it, and in the end, we will win it.

• We will do it for people like Kenneth Aderholt, whose house, inherited from his grandfather, the federal government is attempting to seize. 
• We will do it for people like Patrick Canan, whose ranch and farm of over fifty years will fail if the federal government is allowed to grab his land. 
• We will do it for people like Kevin and Elizabeth Hunter, who want only to build the modest home of their dreams – if only Washington, D.C., won't take their land. 
• We will do it for Kenneth and Barbara Patton, who want only to pass on their land to their children, if only Washington, D.C., will acknowledge that it is in fact theirs.

We will do it for them. And we will also do it for you, and all of us who expect — because we are Americans with rights — that we will be allowed to own property, dispose of it freely, and not have an out-of-control federal government come seize it from beneath us.

The importance of this case goes well beyond the banks of the Red River.It is a compelling cause for each of us who has a home, who has a child, who has a family, or who has a legacy that he wishes to pass on.

 Thankfully, Attorney General Paxton is getting involved:

Texas Attorney General’s Office Intervenes over Federal Red River Land Grab

Wednesday, November 18, 2015 – Austin, Texas 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today intervened in Aderholt, et. al. v. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), challenging the federal encroachment on Texas land near the Red River and seeking to establish recognition of our state’s rightful boundary.

“The borders of any state are a fundamental expression of its sovereignty, and are established through extensive surveys and legal precedent,” said Attorney General Paxton. “We will not allow the federal government to arbitrarily infringe upon Texas land and undermine the private property rights of our citizens. The federal government must follow the law and recognize our correct borders, consistent with decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court defining the boundary formed by the Red River.”

Pursuant to various U.S. Supreme Court cases in the 1920’s, the federal government only has rights to a narrow part of the Red River up to its southern bank. The federal government, however, claims that it owns up to 90,000 acres of Texas property along 117 miles of the Red River, much of it miles from the banks of the Red River.

The BLM’s failure and refusal to conduct a proper and complete boundary survey along the Red River directly injures the state’s ability to demand recognition of its boundary. The federal government’s inaccurate and arbitrary claim to land located in Texas conflicts with the requirements of the U.S. Supreme Court.

TPPF's statement in response to Paxton sums things up well:

“On behalf of our Clients – the Texas private property owners and counties impacted locally by this BLM encroachment – the Center for the American Future welcomes the State of Texas as an intervening party versus the federal government. As recognized by the Attorney General’s office in its Motion, BLM’s seizure of territory outside the south-cut bank of the Red River not only harms our Clients, but affects all Texans due to the intrusion upon the State’s sovereignty. We commend the Governor for his support of this effort and the Attorney General for his advocacy on behalf of Texas.”

Bottom Line: Thank goodness we have dedicated public servants like Ken Paxton and institutions like TPPF.