Liberty
Matters News Service
June 22,
2005
Cave Bugs Have More Rights than Humans
Last week on June 13, the Supreme Court denied the ESA constitutional challenge known as GDF Realty v. Gale Norton, saying, in essence, cave bugs have more rights than humans. The American Land Foundation had been funding the case for nearly five years. "We are terribly disappointed in the outcome and the court," said Mike Dail, chairman of the American Land Foundation. In just one week, the Supreme Court has thrown out states rights and private property rights and granted unlimited powers to the federal government. Gonzales v. Raich, the marijuana case out of California and GDF tried to limit the power of the federal government by restricting its use of the Commerce Clause. GDF Realty involved six endangered cave bugs that live on 216 acres of land owned by Fred Purcell outside of Austin, Texas. The bugs and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have prevented Purcell from developing his land for almost 20 years. Paul Terrill, the attorney that tried the case said; "the Supreme Court very rarely takes cases where there is not a true split in the circuit courts, but since they held our case for so long we thought there was more than a passing interest in this issue." Justice Clarence Thomas made a statement in the Raich case that holds true in GDF; "If Congress can regulate this under the Commerce Clause, then it can regulate virtually anything and the Federal Government is no longer one of limited and enumerated powers."
Supreme Court--ESA has Unlimited Powers
Stop Invasive Species Language in Transportation Bill
The Senate House Conference Committee is currently meeting to hammer out compromises in the gargantuan transportation bill. Of major concern to property rights advocates is language in the Senate version, Sec. 166 that calls for documentation and regulation of "Invasive Species." The provision is a back door means to pile more regulations and restrictions on the use of private property and is termed the Endangered Species Act on "steroids." The House and Senate are attempting to reconcile the differences between two bills. Please ask Sen. Environment & Public Works Committee Chairman, James Inhofe, (R-OK) to remove all language pertaining to "invasive species" from the Senate version and contact Rep. Don Young, Chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee to make sure Sec. 166 of the Senate Bill is removed. Sen. Inhofe: Ph. 202 224-6176; Fax. 202 225-5167 Rep. Young: Ph. 202 225-9446, Fax. 202 225-6782.
Action Alert - Stop Invasive Species Nightmare
Government Proposes Takeover of Oregon Coast
Oregon residents told the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in an "Open House" meeting recently they are not in favor of more government land grabs. They are opposed to a proposal by the New Carissa Natural Resource Trustees - a gang of federal and state agencies and a couple of Indian tribes - to buy up private property to protect the coastline. The Trustees plan to buy 1,500 +/- acres along the 360 mile coastline from Astoria to Brookings with money received from a $25 million settlement from the shipping company that owned the New Carissa, the ship that broke apart in heavy seas with the resulting fuel leak blamed for killing 2,500 sea birds in 1999. The land in question contains old growth timber, said to be prime habitat for the endangered marbled murrelet, and sandy beaches where the snowy plover roams. Residents charge the scheme will only take more property from the tax rolls and further restrict public access to beaches and forests. "We already have millions of acres locked up - that can't be touched by man," said Jim Bice, a very vocal opponent. "Does this make sense?"Land Rights Activists Berate Proposed Plan
People Belong in Cities, Not Country Sides
Gene Duvernoy, president of the Cascade Land
Conservancy, has developed an ambitious plan to buy up the development rights
from owners of 1.3 million acres of forests, farms and stream beds in the
Cascades foothills regulating the construction of new homes outside the
confines of currently existing cities and towns. Duvernoy's first project, a
100-acre plot of "lush and unscarred green forest" that lies beyond Washington
State's Snoqualmie Falls, was purchased for $13.3 million. The land was
originally scheduled for development, but Duvernoy's conservancy secured the
property through a complicated series of financial agreements with the City of
Snoqualmie and Weyhaeuser Company, the developer. Duvernoy's ambitious, 1.3
million acre Cascade Agenda is projected to cost over $7 billion in current
dollars over the next few years, and the conservancy is seeking Congress' help
to craft legislation to allow groups like itself to issue tax-exempt bonds to
finance the project. Duvernoy's real agenda became clear when he wrote; "We can
only succeed at this conservation vision if our cities and towns really become
magnets for our region's future population growth. If cities and towns truly
become family-friendly, with good roads and schools and nearby jobs so that we
want to live with in them and not outside them, the pressure on our critical
landscapes will be at a level our market-based strategies can manage."
A Green Blueprint Near Seattle