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Riedel v. Anderson6/4/2003
e Court has ruled that the more restricted land grants to New Mexico and Arizona imposed fiduciary obligations, equivalent to a federallyimposed trust, to manage the lands for the exclusive benefit of the common schools. Lassen, 385 U.S. at 467-68, 87 S.Ct. at 588-89; Ervien, 251 U.S. at 48, 40 S.Ct. at 76.
The United States Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit has noted that "the question of whether a statehood statute creates a federal trust requires a case-specific analysis of the particular state's enabling statute because the history of each state's admission to the Union is unique." Branson Sch. Dist., 161 F.3d at 633. Observing that the Colorado Enabling Act falls somewhere in between - in both chronology and specificity - the Michigan-Alabama model and the Arizona-New Mexico model, the court ruled that the Colorado act contains a sufficient enumeration of duties to indicate Congress's intent to create a fiduciary relationship between the state and its common schools. Id. at 633-34. The court also found significant the fact that the Colorado Constitution, adopted immediately after the Enabling Act and therefore a contemporaneous expression of the parties' intent, clearly indicated that the land grants "shall be... held in trust subject to disposal, for the use and benefit of the respective objects for which said grants of land were made. Id. at 634-35.
Two years later, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals reviewed the 1896 Utah Enabling Act's grant of land for a miners' hospital for disabled miners. Dist. 22 United Mine Workers v. Utah, 229 F.3d 982 (10th Cir. 2000). Noting Branson's requirement of a case-specific review, the court ruled that Utah's enabling act did not create a trust because the Utah legislature was authorized to dispose of the lands "in such manner as the legislature may provide," and "this express latitude given to the State of Utah militates against the creation of a trust." Id. at 990. The 10th Circuit's ruling was in accord with Andrus v. Utah, 446 U.S. 500, 507, 100 S.Ct. 1803, 1807, 64 L.Ed.2d 458 (1980), which held that the Utah Enabling Act created a "solemn agreement" by the state to use its school lands as intended by the federal government, but did not create a trust.
Wyoming's enabling act is similar to Colorado's but differs in two significant respects. The Wyoming act does not specify a minimum sales price for its school lands and expressly authorizes the leasing of the lands in any manner the state legislature provides. Colo. Enabling Act, § 14, 18 Stat. at 476; Wyo. Act of Admission, § 5, 26 Stat. at 22-23. Wyoming's enabling legislation is therefore more in accord with that of Utah, and we therefore conclude that the latitude given the Wyoming legislature likewise militates against the creation of an express trust by the Wyoming Act of Admission.
Turning to the question of whether the Wyoming Constitution creates an express trust of the school lands, we conclude that it does not. The parties cite authority from several states for the proposition that the state constitution, either alone or in concert with the states' enabling acts, creates an express trust in accepting the land grants from Congress. Each of those state constitutions is distinguishable from Wyoming's, however. The Colorado Constitution, as noted by the Branson court, directs its legislature to "provide by law that the several grants of land... shall be... carefully preserved and held in trust...." 1876 Colo. Const., Art. IX, § 10 (amended 1996); Branson Sch. Dist., 161 F.3d at 635. The South Dakota Constitution likewise provides that "all lands and the proceeds" from such lands are considered perpetual funds, S. Dak. Const., Art. VIII, § 7, which the South D
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