Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton today intervened in Aderholt, et. al. v. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), challenging the federal encroachment on Texas land near the Red River and seeking to establish recognition of our state’s rightful boundary.
“The borders of any state are a fundamental expression of its sovereignty, and are established through extensive surveys and legal precedent,” said Attorney General Paxton. “We will not allow the federal government to arbitrarily infringe upon Texas land and undermine the private property rights of our citizens. 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 1920’s, 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.