Federal/State Compact

In Stearns v. State of Minn., 179 U.S. 223 (1900,) "terms and conditions" of Enabling Acts for Admission regarding the federal retention of public lands were upheld as valid by the Court. Stated Justice Brewer:

"When Minnesota was admitted into the Union, and admitted on the basis of full equality with all other states, there were within its limits a large amount of lands belonging to the national government. The enabling act, February 26, 1857 (11 Stat. at L. 166, chap. 60), authorizing the inhabitants of Minnesota to form a constitution and a state government, tendered certain propositions to the people of the territory, coupled in 5 with this proviso (11 Stat. at L. 167, chap. 60):

'The foregoing propositions herein offered are on the condition that the said convention which shall form the Constitution of said state shall provide, by a clause in said Constitution, or an ordinance, irrevocable without the consent of the United States, that said state shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil within the same, by the United States, or with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title in said soil to bona fide purchasers thereof; and that no tax shall be imposed on lands belonging to the United States, and that in no case shall nonresident proprietors be taxed higher than residents.'

"And in article 2, 3, of the Constitution, passed by virtue of this enabling act, reads as follows (Gen. Stat. Minn. 1894, p. lxxiv.):

'The propositions contained in the act of Congress entitled 'An Act to Authorize the People of the Territory of Minnesota to Form a Constitution and State Government Preparatory to Their Admission into the Union on an Equal Footing with the Original States,' are hereby accepted, ratified, and confirmed, and shall remain irrevocable without the consent of the United States; and it is hereby ordained that this state shall never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil within the same, by the United States, or with any regulations Congress may find necessary for securing the title to said soil to bona fide purchasers thereof; and no tax shall be imposed on lands belonging to the United States, and in no case shall nonresident proprietors be taxed higher than residents.'

"That these provisions of the enabling act and the Constitution, in form at least, made a compact between the United States and the state, is evident. In an inquiry as to the validity of such a compact this distinction must at the outset be noticed. There may be agreements or compacts attempted to be entered into between two states, or between a state and the nation, in reference to political rights and obligations, and there may be those solely in reference to property belonging to one or the other. That different considerations may underlie the question as to the validity of these two kinds of compacts or agreements is obvious. It has often been said that a state admitted into the Union enters therein in full equality with all the others, and such equality may forbid any agreement or compact limiting or qualifying political rights and obligations; whereas, on the other hand, a mere agreement in reference to property involves no question of equality of status, but only of the power of a state to deal with the nation or with any other state in reference to such property. The case before us is one involving simply an agreement as to property between a state and the nation.

"That a state and the nation are competent to enter into an agreement of such a nature with one another has been affirmed in past decisions of this court, and that they have been frequently made in the admission of new states, as well as subsequently thereto, is a matter of history...."

"...In Poole v. Fleeger, 11 Pet. 185, 9 L. ed. 680, 955, an agreement between Kentucky and Tennessee as to boundary was upheld, Mr. Justice Story, speaking for the court, saying (p. 209, L. ed. p. 690):

'It cannot be doubted that it is a part of the general right of sovereignty, belonging to independent nations, to establish and fix the disputed boundaries between their respective territories; and the boundaries so established and fixed by compact between nations become conclusive upon all the subjects and citizens thereof, and bind their rights; and are to be treated, to all intents and purposes, as the true and real boundaries. This is a doctrine universally recognized in the law and practice of nations. It is a right equally belonging to the states of this Union, unless it has been surrendered under the Constitution of the United States. So far from there being any pretense of such a general surrender of the right, that it is expressly recognized by the Constitution, and guarded in its exercise by a single limitation or restriction, requiring the consent of Congress. The Constitution declares that 'no state shall, without the consent of Congress, enter into any agreement or compact with another state,' thus plainly admitting that, with such consent, it might be done, and in the present instance that consent has been expressly given. The compact, then, has full validity, and all the terms and conditions of it must be equally obligatory upon the citizens of both states.'"

..."If as 'a part of the general right of sovereignty' to which Mr. Justice Story refers in the quotation above made, the right of agreement between one another belongs to the several states, except as limited by the constitutional provisions requiring the consent of Congress, equally true is it that a state may make a compact with all the states, constituting as one body the nation, possessed of general right of sovereignty and represented by Congress. That Congress has consented is shown by the fact that it proposed the terms of the agreement and declared the state admitted on its assent to those terms."

..."Returning, then, to the facts of the case before us, by the provisions quoted the state expressly agreed that no tax should be imposed on lands belonging to the United States, that it should never interfere with the primary disposal of the soil within the state by the United States, or with any regulations Congress might find necessary for securing the soil to bona fide purchasers thereof. These provisions are not to be construed narrowly or technically, but as expressing a consent on the part of the state to the terms proposed by Congress; and among these terms were that the full control of the disposition of the lands of the United States should be free from state action. Whether Congress should sell or donate; what terms it should impose upon the sale or donation; what arrangements it should make for securing title to the beneficiaries-were all matters withdrawn from state interference by the terms of the enabling act and the Constitution..."

..."But whatever may be the rule applicable in the ordinary administration of affairs in the land department, the provisions of the enabling act and the state Constitution, before referred to, secure to the United States full control of the disposition of the public lands within the limits of the state..."

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