By: Corey Gardner*
Abstract
Do public lands belong to the federal government or the individual states the lands are within? Utah v. United States, a case filed in the Supreme Court in August 2020, sought to answer this question as old as the United States itself. Currently, the Bureau of Land Management retains almost 70% of the land within the state of Utah. Utah, along with the 13 states that filed amicus curiae in support, sought to see public lands within a state be divested to them. While the Supreme Court denied hearing the issue, unrest in states will continue until there is a final resolution on public land ownership.
This Comment examines the arguments of the parties in Utah v. United States. Specifically, this Comment explores the tension between the federal and state governments over public land control. Drawing from court decisions regarding Congress’s authority to dispose and divest property, the Founding-Era history of divestiture, and the public interest in Western conservation efforts, this Comment argues that the federal government can hold unappropriated public lands within a state indefinitely.
* J.D. Candidate, The Pennsylvania State University Dickinson School of Law, 2026. I would like to thank Devin, Brad, Anita, Keanu, and Gunther for their endless support and the last Penn State Law Review for their assistance on this Comment.