Obama's seized more land by executive fiat than any other U.S. president

Last Friday, President Obama ordered that well over half a million — 582,578 — square miles off the coast of Hawaii be seized as property for the federal government. Now a “national marine monument,” large swaths of the Hawaiian coast are off limits to commercial fishing.

This is a huge blow to commercial fishermen in Hawaii, who are not happy that they will be barred from fishing in over 60 percent of the water off of the islands. The Associated Press talked to Edwin Ebiusi Jr. of the Western Pacific Regional Fishery Management Council, who said “Today is a sad day in the history of Hawaii’s fisheries and a negative blow to our local food security.”

“Sean Martin, president of the Hawaii Longline Association, said his organization was disappointed Obama closed an area nearly the size of Alaska without a public process,” the AP reports.

Martin’s point is on the money: When the president seizes huge tracts of land or water in the name of “public good,” the American people get no say and merely limited access to that land.

Under the 1906 Antiquities Act, the president has almost unlimited authority to arbitrarily seize land and waters. The only limits on the authority were imposed by Congress in 1950 after President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared Jackson Hole, Wy., federal land in 1943, and after President Jimmy Carter federalized over 50 million acres in Alaska. But the president’s power is only limited in those two states.

Obama’s legacy proves that a president’s unlimited authority to federalize “national monuments” needs to be checked by Congress. President Obama has seized more than any other president, and without limits on the presidential power going forward, more and more Americans will continue to be harmed by such cases going forward.

The reasons for the president’s land/ocean grabs are political: his concerns about climate change are so grave, that the federal government has to — must! — take over more land.

In his speech about the new marine monument in Hawaii, Obama stated: “Since taking office, I’ve protected more than 548 million acres of our lands and waters for our children and grandchildren. I have to say that Teddy Roosevelt gets the credit for starting the National Parks system, but when you include a big chunk of the Pacific Ocean, we now have actually done more acreage than any other President.”

He added that by declaring the new marine monument in Hawaii, he has “created the largest marine reserve” and that “this is an area twice the size of Texas that’s going to be protected, and it allows us to save and study the fragile ecosystem threatened by climate change.”

He also stated that “while some members of the U.S. Congress still seem to be debating whether climate change is real or not, many of you [in island nations] are planning for new places for your people to live.”

It’s a weird, sad day in America when the president praises himself for seizing hundreds of thousands of acres with just one, simple unilateral action.

It’s time for Congress to put checks on the presidential powers granted by the outdated Antiquities Act, so we can prevent future presidents from seizing more American land for a purely political reason that is open to debate — whether the White House likes it or not.

Maria Jeffrey is a correspondent for Conservative Review. Follow her on Twitter at @MariaTJeffrey