Yes, The Mormons Now Admit They Were Responsible For September 11

The last time the Mormons went to war against the U.S. the result was the worst act of domestic terrorism in the country's history. This short film captures it:



The film forced the Mormons to admit the Church's guilt-- for the first time. But it certainly hasn't helped turn them away from their disdain for and hatred of what America is all about. Gary Herbert was a crazy Mormon real estate agent, BYU dropout and right-wing, homophobic kook when he wound up stumbling into Utah's governorship last August after Obama appointed the elected Governor, Jon Huntsman, Ambassador to China. This week Herbert signed 2 clearly unconstitutional bills "authorizing the state to use eminent domain to seize some of the federal government's most valuable land."

Supporters hope the bills, which the Republican governor signed Saturday, will trigger a flood of similar legislation throughout the West and, eventually, a Supreme Court battle that they hope to win-- against long odds.

More than 60% of Utah is owned by the U.S. government, and policymakers complain that federal ownership hinders their ability to generate tax revenue and adequately fund public schools. Governments use eminent domain to take private property for public use.

Even the Salt Lake Tribune and right-wing lawyers think this is insane.

Steve Bainbridge and co-blogger Eugene Volokh ask whether states are permitted to use eminent domain to take federal land. The question is occasioned by Utah’s recently enacted plan to condemn federal land within its territory.

For reasons I discussed in this earlier post inspired by Utah’s plans, the answer is almost certainly no. Indeed, as the Washington Post story linked above points out, the Utah legislature’s “own attorneys acknowledge [that their condemnation effort] has little chance of success.” I can understand Utahns’ frustration with the fact that “[m]ore than 60 percent of Utah is owned by the U.S. government, and policy makers [t]here have long complained that federal ownership hinders their ability to generate tax revenue and adequately fund public schools.” But condemning federally owned land is unlikely to solve the problem.

Asserting that the legislature didn't give the federal government the right to acquire the lands in question, they now have the right to take it back. Even the legislature's own lawyers are trying to explain that under the property and supremacy clauses of the Constitution, their assertions are a nonstarter. So what are they doing? Well... hoping to luck out with a loopy Supreme Court and drag the country back to the good old days (the Roger Taney days, although they probably forgot how Mormons were regarded in those good old days).