| Venue: | Ct. App. 9th Cir. |
| Facts: | Gardners graze their livestock on federal land (Humboldt National Forest), and are enjoined from doing so: it's trespass. |
| Posture: | Injunction from district court, and a fee imposed. Gardners appeal. |
| Issue: | Does the Equal Footing doctrine preclude the federal government from using land ceded to it for its own purposes, because this keeps states from entering the union on equal footing with others? |
| Holding: | No. |
| Rule: | The US holds title to these lands. The Property clause says that the US can administer federal lands any way it wants to. |
| Reasoning: | The Equal Footing doctrine applies to political rights and sovereignty, not economic or physical characteristics of the states. |
| Dicta: | |