Texans’ Property Rights Must Be Preserved

U.S. District Court Grants Texas Intervention in Federal Red River Land Grab

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today announced that the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas has granted Texas’ intervention in Aderholt, et. al. v. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), which seeks to establish recognition of our state’s rightful boundary by challenging federal encroachment on Texas land near the Red River.

“Washington D.C. needs to hear, loud and clear, that Texas will not stand for the federal government’s infringement upon Texas land and the property rights of the people who live here,” said Attorney General Paxton. “The federal government must follow the law and recognize our correct borders, consistent with decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court defining the boundary formed by the Red River.”

Pursuant to various U.S. Supreme Court cases in the 1920s, the federal government only has rights to a narrow part of the Red River up to its southern bank. The federal government, however, claims that it owns up to 90,000 acres of Texas property along 117 miles of the Red River, much of it miles from the banks of the Red River.

The BLM’s failure and refusal to conduct a proper and complete boundary survey along the Red River directly injures the state’s ability to demand recognition of its boundary. The federal government’s inaccurate and arbitrary claim to land located in Texas conflicts with the requirements of the U.S. Supreme Court.