SJR 16: Requesting the United States Congress to amend Title VIII of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act.
00SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 16 01 Requesting the United States Congress to amend Title VIII of the Alaska National 02 Interest Lands Conservation Act. 03 BE IT RESOLVED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF ALASKA: 04 WHEREAS provisions of Title VIII of the Alaska National Interest Lands 05 Conservation Act (ANILCA; P.L. 96-487) arbitrarily divide the residents of Alaska into groups 06 based on the population and economic characteristics of the communities where they live; and 07 WHEREAS the purpose of this division is to discriminatorily provide access to and 08 allocation of the fish and wildlife of Alaska for subsistence uses without regard to the 09 individual resident's traditional or historic use of or need to engage in subsistence uses of fish 10 and wildlife; and 11 WHEREAS such allocations of the fish and wildlife resources of Alaska are contrary 12 to the principles of the public trust doctrine and of the common use of and equal access to fish 13 and wildlife that are inherent rights of all Alaskans guaranteed by the Constitution of the State 14 of Alaska; and
01 WHEREAS the common use and equal access provisions of the Constitution of the 02 State of Alaska bar the state from complying with the provisions of Title VIII of ANILCA; 03 and 04 WHEREAS the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture have relied 05 on provisions of Title VIII of ANILCA to attempt to preempt state authority over management 06 and allocation of fish and wildlife on public land and navigable water in Alaska; and 07 WHEREAS the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture require that 08 the State of Alaska amend its constitution to conform to the provisions of Title VIII of 09 ANILCA as a precondition to the relinquishment of authority over subsistence uses of fish and 10 wildlife on public land and navigable water in Alaska; and 11 WHEREAS the Alaska State Legislature has steadfastly resisted pressure from federal 12 agencies to amend the Constitution of the State of Alaska to conform to federal legislation that 13 does not recognize the principles of the public trust doctrine and of the common use of and 14 equal access to state-owned or state-managed natural resources; and 15 WHEREAS the United States Supreme Court in Scott v. Sanford, 60 U.S. 393 (1856), 16 ruled that the property clause of the United States Constitution cannot be used to destroy or 17 to impair in any way the civil and political rights of citizens of the United States or to provide 18 the power to establish inequalities among those citizens by creating privileges in one class of 19 citizens by the disenfranchisement of other classes by degrading them from a position they 20 previously occupied; and 21 WHEREAS the United States Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Alaska, 521 22 U.S. 1 (1997), that the Alaska Statehood Compact expressly provides that the Submerged 23 Lands Act applies to Alaska and that the State of Alaska is entitled to the benefits of both the 24 equal footing doctrine and the Submerged Lands Act, which carries with it the power to 25 control fishing and other public uses of these lands and waters, which is an essential attribute 26 of state sovereignty; and 27 WHEREAS the United States Supreme Court has ruled in Printz v. United States, 521 28 U.S. 98 (1997), that the United States Constitution established a system of "dual sovereignty" 29 that provides to the Congress only discrete enumerated powers, that all other powers not 30 delegated to the United States by the United States Constitution are reserved to the states 31 respectively or to the people, that, as such, the United States Constitution does not confer
01 upon the Congress the power to regulate state governments or the power to require a state 02 either to legislate according to the direction of the Congress or to implement administrative 03 action, and, moreover, that the Supremacy Clause is applicable only to laws of the United 04 States that are made in accordance with and in conformity with the United States Constitution; 05 and 06 WHEREAS the Alaska State Legislature acknowledges and wholeheartedly supports 07 all efforts of the Congress to eliminate blatant and onerous federal intrusions into the affairs 08 of sovereign states; 09 BE IT RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully and ardently 10 requests the Congress to revise Title VIII of the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation 11 Act to incorporate the principles of the public trust doctrine and of the common use of and 12 equal access to fish and wildlife resources for subsistence uses; and be it 13 FURTHER RESOLVED that the Alaska State Legislature respectfully requests the 14 Congress to mandate that the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture return 15 authority for management of subsistence uses of fish and wildlife in Alaska to the State of 16 Alaska. 17 COPIES of this resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Al Gore, Jr., Vice-President 18 of the United States and President of the U.S. Senate; the Honorable J. Dennis Hastert, 19 Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives; the Honorable Trent Lott, Majority Leader of 20 the U.S. Senate; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Honorable Frank Murkowski, U.S. 21 Senators, and the Honorable Don Young, U.S. Representative, members of the Alaska 22 delegation in Congress.