Source: https://www.law.cornell.edu/supremecourt/text/236/459/
Timestamp: 2019-04-20 12:49:42+00:00

Document:
Argued: January 9 and 12, 1914.
Ordered for reargument before full bench April 20, 1914.
1. Prior to the act of June 25, 1910 (36 Stat. at L. 847, 848, chap. 421, Comp. Stat. 1913, §§ 4523, 4525), did the President (or the Secretary of the Interior) have the lawful power, 'in aid of proposed legislation affecting the use and disposition of the petroleum deposits on the public domain,' to withdraw public lands containing petroleum, and chiefly valuable therefor, from all forms of location, selection, filing, entry, or disposal under the public mineral-land laws?
2. Did petroleum withdrawal No. 5, of date September 27, 1909, have the effect of preventing the lawful location or acquisition of lands (described in said withdrawal order No. 5), which contained petroleum or other mineral oils, and were chiefly valuable therefor, by persons authorized to enter lands under the mining laws of the United States, under the provisions of the act of Congress entitled, 'An Act to Authorize the Entry and Patenting of Lands Containing Petroleum and Other Mineral Oils under the Placer-Mining Laws of the United States,' approved February 11, 1897 (29 Stat. at L. 526, chap. 216, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4635).
5. If there were specific purposes actuating the order of September 27, 1909, sufficient in law to sustain it, and consistent with, but not appearing in, its language, was it incumbent on the plaintiff to allege such specific purposes in its bill in order to have the advantage of them as against the defendant's motion to dismiss?
This suit originated in a bill in equity filed by the United States in the District Court of the United States for the District of Wyoming, seeking to recover certain tracts of petroleum lands and to obtain an accounting for petroleum alleged to have been illegally extracted therefrom. The court sustained the defendant's demurrer and dismissed the bill, whereupon the government took the case to the Circuit Court of Appeals, which rendered no decision, but certified the above questions to the Supreme Court. Case remanded to the District Court, with directions to reverse the decree dismissing the bill.
Messrs. Aldis B. Browne, Alexander Britton, Evans Browne, Francis W. Clements, Frederic R. Kellogg, E. S. Pillsbury, Oscar Sutro, and Frank H. Short as amici curioe.
All public lands containing petroleum or other mineral oils, and chiefly valuable therefor, have been declared by Congress to be 'free and open to occupation, exploration, and purchase by citizens of the United States . . . under regulations prescribed by law.' Act of February 11, 1897, 29 Stat. at L. 526, chap. 216, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4635; Rev. Stat. §§ 2319, 2329, Comp. Stat. 1913, §§ 4614, 4628.
The list attached described an area aggregating 3,041,000 acres in California and Wyomingthough, of course, the order only applied to the public lands therein, the acreage of which is not shown.
As the explorations by the original claimants, and the subsequent operation of the well, were both long after the date of the President's proclamation, the government filed, in the district court of the United States for the district of Wyoming, a bill in equity against the Midwest Oil Company and the other appellees, seeking to recover the land and to obtain an accounting for 50,000 barrels of oil alleged to have been illegally extracted. The court sustained the defendant's demurrer and dismissed the bill. Thereupon the government took the case to the circuit court of appeals of the eighth circuit, which rendered no decision, but certified certain questions to this court, where an order was subsequently passed, directing the entire record to be sent up for consideration.
The case has twice been fully argued. Both parties, as well as other persons interested in oil lands similarly affected, have submitted lengthy and elaborate briefs on the single and controlling question as to the validity of the withdrawal order. On the part of the government it is urged that the President, as Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy, had power to make the order for the purpose of retaining and preserving a source of supply of fuel for the Navy, instead of allowing the oil land to be taken up for a nominal sum, the government being then obliged to purchase at a great cost what it had previously owned. It is argued that the President, charged with the care of the public domain, could, by virtue of the executive power vested in him by the Constitution (art. 2, § 1), and also in conformity with the tacit consent of Congress, withdraw, in the public interest, any public land from entry or location by private parties.
The appellees, on the other hand, insist that there is no dispensing power in the Executive, and that he could not suspend a statute or withdraw from entry or location any land which Congress had affirmatively declared should be free and open to acquisition by citizens of the United States. They further insist that the withdrawal order is absolutely void, since it appears on its face to be a mere attempt to suspend a statutesupposed to be unwisein order to allow Congress to pass another more in accordance with what the Executive thought to be in the public interest.
In the sense that these lands may have been intended for public use, they were reserved for a public purpose. But they were not reserved in pursuance of law, or by virtue of any general or special statutory authority. For it is to be specially noted that there was no act of Congress providing for bird reserves or for these Indian reservations. There was no law for the establishment of these military reservations or defining their size or location. There was no statute empowering the President to withdraw any of these lands from settlement, or to reserve them for any of the purposes indicated.
But, notwithstanding this decision and the continuity of this practice, the absence of express statutory authority was the occasion of doubt being expressed as to the power of the President to make these orders. The matter was therefore several times referred to the law officers of the government for an opinion on the subject. One of them stated (1889) (19 Ops. Atty. Gen. 370) that the validity of such orders rested on 'a long-established and long-recognized power in the President to withhold from sale or settlement at discretion, portions of the public domain.' Another reported that 'the power of the President was recognized by Congress, and that such recognition was equivalent to a grant' (17 Ops. Atty. Gen. 163) (1881). Again, when the claim was made that the power to withdraw did not extend to mineral land, the Attorney General gave the opinion that the power must be 'regarded as extending to any lands which belong to the public domain, and capable of being exercised with respect to such lands so long as they remain unappropriated.' (17 Ops. Atty. Gen. 232) (1881).
2. It may be argued that while these facts and rulings prove a usage, they do not establish its validity. But government is a practical affair, intended for practical men. Both officers, lawmakers, and citizens naturally adjust themselves to any long-continued action of the Executive Department, on the presumption that unauthorized acts would not have been allowed to be so often repeated as to crystallize into a regular practice. That presumption is not reasoning in a circle, but the basis of a wise and quieting rule that, in determining the meaning of a statute or the existence of a power, weight shall be given to the usage itself,even when the validity of the practice is the subject of investigation.
Again, in McPherson v. Blacker, 146 U. S. 1(4), 36 L. ed. 869, 13 Sup. Ct. Rep. 3, where the question was as to the validity of a state law providing for the appointment of Presidential electors, it was held that, if the terms of the provision of the Constitution of the United States left the question of the power in doubt, the 'contemporaneous and continuous subsequent practical construction would be treated as decisive' (36). Fairbank v. United States, 181 U. S. 307, 45 L. ed. 872, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 648, 15 Am. Crim. Rep. 135; Cooley v. Port Wardens, 12 How. 315, 13 L. ed. 1003. See also Grisar v. McDowell, 6 Wall. 364, 381, 18 L. ed. 863, 868, where, in 1867, the practice of the Executive Department was referred to as evidence of the validity of these orders making reservations of public land, even when the practice was by no means so general and extensive as it has since become.
3. These decisions do not, of course, mean that private rights could be created by an officer withdrawing for a railroad more than had been authorized by Congress in the land grant act. Southern P. R. Co. v. Bell, 183 U. S. 685, 46 L. ed. 388, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 232; Brandon v. Ard, 211 U. S. 21, 53 L. ed. 72, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1. Nor do these decisions mean that the Executive can, by his course of action, create a power. But they do clearly indicate that the long-continued practice, known to and acquiesced in by Congress, would raise a presumption that the withdrawals had been made in pursuance of its consent or of a recognized administrative power of the Executive in the management of the public lands. This is particularly true in view of the fact that the land is property of the United States, and that the land laws are not of a legislative character in the highest sense of the term (art. 4, § 3), 'but savor somewhat of mere rules prescribed by an owner of property for its disposal.' Butte City Water Co. v. Baker, 196 U. S. 126, 49 L. ed. 412, 25 Sup. Ct. Rep. 211.
These rules or laws for the disposal of public land are necessarily general in their nature. Emergencies may occur, or conditions may so change as to require that the agent in charge should, in the public interest, withhold the land from sale; and while no such express authority has been granted, there is nothing in the nature of the power exercised which prevents Congress from granting it by implication just as could be done by any other owner of property under similar conditions. The power of the Executive, as agent in charge, to retain that property from sale, need not necessarily be expressed in writing. Lockhart v. Johnson, 181 U. S. 520, 45 L. ed. 982, 21 Sup. Ct. Rep. 665; Bronson v. Chappell, 12 Wall. 686, 20 L. ed. 438; Campbell v. Kenosha, 5 Wall. 194(2), 18 L. ed. 610.
For it must be borne in mind that Congress not only has a legislative power over the public domain, but it also exercises the powers of the proprietor therein. Congress 'may deal with such lands precisely as an ordinary individual may deal with farming property. It may sell or withhold them from sale.' Camfield v. United States, 167 U. S. 524, 42 L. ed. 262, 17 Sup. Ct. Rep. 864; Light v. United States, 220 U. S. 536, 55 L. ed. 574, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 485. Like any other owner it may provide when, how, and to whom its land can be sold. It can permit it to be withdrawn from sale. Like any other owner, it can waive its strict rights, as it did when the valuable privilege of grazing cattle on this public land was held to be based upon an 'implied license growing out of the custom of nearly a hundred years.' Buford v. Houtz, 133 U. S. 326, 33 L. ed. 620, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 305. So, too, in the early days, the 'government, by its silent acquiescence, assented to the general occupation of the public lands for mining.' Atchison v. Peterson, 20 Wall. 512, 22 L. ed. 416. If private persons could acquire a privilege in public land by virtue of an implied congressional consent, then, for a much stronger reason, an implied grant of power to preserve the public interest would arise out of like congressional acquiescence.
4. The appellees, however, argue that the practice thus approved related to reservations,to cases where the land had been reserved for military or other special public purposes,and they contend that even if the President could reserve land for a public purpose or naval uses, it does not follow that he can withdraw land in aid of legislation.
When analyzed, this proposition, in effect, seeks to make a distinction between a reservation and a withdrawal,between a reservation for a purpose not provided for by existing legislation, and a withdrawal made in aid of future legislation. It would mean that a permanent reservation for a purpose designated by the President, but not provided for by a statute, would be valid, while a merely temporary withdrawal to enable Congress to legislate in the public interest would be invalid. It is only necessary to point out that, as the greater includes the less, the power to make permanent reservations includes power to make temporary withdrawals. For there is no distinction in principle between the two. The character of the power exerted is the same in both cases. In both, the order is made to serve the public interest, and in both the effect on the intending settler or miner is the same.
But the question need not be left solely to inference, since the validity of withdrawal orders, in aid of legislation, has been expressly recognized in a series of cases involving a number of such orders, made between 1850 and 1862. Dubuque & P. R. Co. v. Litchfield, 23 How. 66, 16 L. ed. 500; Wolcott v. Des Moines Nav. & R. Co. 5 Wall. 681, 18 L. ed. 689; Wolsey v. Chapman, 101 U. S. 755, 25 L. ed. 915; Litchfield v. Webster County, 101 U. S. 773, 25 L. ed. 925; Bullard v. Des Moines & Ft. D. R. Co. 122 U. S. 167, 30 L. ed. 1123, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1149.
'On April 6, 1850, Secretary Ewing, while concurring with Attorney General Crittenden in his opinion that the grant of 1846 did not extend beyond the Raccoon Fork, issued an order withholding all the lands then in controversy from market 'until the close of the then session of Congress,' which order has been continued ever since' (we italicize) 'in order to give the state the opportunity of petitioning for an extension of the grant by Congress.' Bullard v. Des Moines & Ft. D. R. Co. 122 U. S. 170, 30 L. ed. 1124, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1149.
The withdrawal was made in 1851. The hoped-for legislation was not passed until several years later. Between those dates various private citizens made settlements by which, under various statutes, they initiated rights and acquired an interest in the landif the withdrawal order was void. But by such settlements they obtained no rights if the withdrawal order was valid. A subsequent ratification could have related back to 1851, but if the withdrawal was originally void, the ratification, of course, could not cut out intervening rights of settlers. Cook v. Tullis, 18 Wall. 338 21 L. ed. 936.
'This court has decided in a number of cases, in regard to thses lands, that this withdrawal operated to exclude from sale, purchase, or pre-emption all the lands in controversy.' Bullard v. Des Moines & Ft. D. R. Co. 122 U. S. 170, 30 L. ed. 1124, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1149.
5. Beginning in 1850 with this order of Secretary Ewing, in aid of legislation on behalf of Iowa, and its continuance even after this court had decided that no land above the Fork passed to the territory (23 How. 66), the practice of making withdrawals continued down to 1910. The reasons for making the withdrawal orders varied, but the power exerted was the same, and was supported by the same implied consent of Congress.
For, if any distinction can be drawn between the principle decided in the Iowa cases and this; or if the power involved in making a reservation could differ from that exercised in making a withdrawal,then the Executive practice and congressional acquiescence, which operated as a grant of an implied power to make permanent reservations, are also present to operate as a grant of an implied power to make temporary withdrawals. It may be well to refer to some of the public records showing the existence and extent of the practice.
There were also temporary withdrawals of oil land from agricultural entry, in aid of subsequent legislation. 26 Sen. Doc. 75; 43 House Doc. 8, 9, 10, 13 (61st Cong.).
In pursuance of a like practice and power, public land containing coal was withdrawn 'pending the enactment of new legislation.' 35 Land Dec. 395; 43 H. Doc. 8, 13. In the message of the President to the 2d session of the 59th Congress attention was called to the withdrawal of coal lands in aid of legislation. There was no repudiation of the order or of the practice either at that session, or at any succeeding session of Congress. It was claimed in the argument that the act of 1908 (35 Stat. at L. 424, chap. 211, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 5075) was the legislation contemplated by the Executive when coal lands were temporarily withdrawn by the order of 1906; and reference has already been made to the act of 1861 12 Stat. at L. 251 concerning the Iowa lands withdrawn in 1849. There were other instances in which there was congressional action at a more or less remote period after the order of temporary withdrawal. The land for the Wind Cave Park was withdrawn in 1900 and the Park was established in 1903 (32 Stat. at L. 765, chap. 63, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 5231); bird reserves were established in 1903, and, in 1906 (34 Stat. at L. 536, chap. 3565, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 10,252), an act was passed making it an offense to interfere with birds on reserves established by law, proclamation, or Executive order. See also 35 Land Dec. 11; 34 Stat. at L. 517, chap. 3555. But in the majority of cases there was no subsequent legislation in reference to such lands, although the withdrawal orders prevented the acquisition of any private interest in such land until after the order was revoked.
Whether, in a particular case, Congress acted or not, nothing was done by it which could, in any way, be construed as a denial of the right of the Executive to make temporary withdrawals of public land in the public interest. Considering the size of the tracts affected and the length of time they remained in force, without objection, these orders by which islands, isolated tracts, coal, phosphate, and oil lands were withdrawn in aid of legislation, furnish, in and of themselves, ample proof of congressional recognition of the power to withdraw.
The list, which is attached, refers to withdrawal orders, about 100 in number, issued between 1870 and 1902. Many of them were in aid of the administration of the land laws: to correct boundaries; to prevent fraud; to make a classification of the land; and like goodbut nonstatutoryreasons. Some were made to prevent settlements while the question was being considered as to whether the lands might not be included in a forest reservation to be thereafter established. One in 1889 (referred to also in 28 Land Dec. 358) was made in order to afford the state of Nebraska an opportunity to procure legislative relief, as in the Iowa cases above cited.
6. Nor is the position of the appellees strengthened by the act of June 25, 1910, (36 Stat. at L. 847, chap. 421, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4523), to authorize the President to make withdrawals of public lands, and requiring a list of the same to be filed with Congress.
The legislative history of the statute shows that there was no such intent and no purpose to make the act retroactive, or to disaffirm what the agent in charge had already done. The proclamation of September 27, 1909, withdrawing oil lands from private acquisition, was of far-reaching consequence both to individuals and to the public. It gave rise to much discussion, and the old question as to the authority of the President to make these orders was again raised. Various bills were introduced on the subject, and the President himself sent a message to Congress, calling attention to the existence of the doubt, and suggesting the desirability of legislation to expressly grant the power and ratify what had been done. A bill passed the House, containing such ratification and authorizing future withdrawals. When the bill came to the Senate it was referred to a committee, and, as its members did not agree in their view of the law, two reports were made. The majority, after a review of the practice of the Department, the acquiescence of Congress in the practice, and the decisions of the courts, reported that the President already had a general power of withdrawal, and recommended the passage of the pending bill, inasmuch as it operated to restrict the greater power already possessed. Sen. Rep. 171 (61st Cong. 2d Session). But having regard to the fact that private persons, on withdrawn land, had raised a question as to the validity of the order, and that such question presented a matter for judicial determination, Congress was studious to avoid doing anything which would affect either the public or private rights. It therefore used language which showed not only that the statute was not intended to be retrospective, but was not to be construed either as a recognition, enlargement, or repudiation of rights like those asserted by appellees.
It appears from the averments of the bill that the lands were originally located by certain individuals after the order of withdrawal and on March 27, 1910; that they were entered upon, explored, and a well drilled, thereby rendering subject to ready extraction large deposits of petroleum of great value; and that the original claimants caused to be filed and recorded in the records of Natrona county, Wyoming, a certain location certificate evidencing claim and location by them of the land as a petroleum placer-mining claim under and in pursuance of the mining laws of the United States. These parties subsequently assigned their rights to the defendant, the Midwest Oil Company, and certain other persons named. The bill also avers that after the withdrawal order of September 27, 1909, on July 2, 1910, a further order of withdrawal, described as 'Order of withdrawal. Petroleum reserve No. 8,' was made by the President, expressly affirming the order of September 27, 1909.
Under Rev. Stat. § 2329, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4628, provision was made for entering and patenting placer-mining claims in like manner as vein or lode claims; and by Rev. Stat. § 2319, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4614, 'all valuable mineral deposits' were opened to exploration and purchase, and the lands containing them to occupation and purchase under regulations prescribed by law, and according to the local customs or rules of miners.
It is to be observed that the lands here in controversy are situated in the state of Wyoming. There was no suggestion that such lands would ever be needed as a basis of oil supply for the Navy. They were withdrawn solely upon the suggestion that a better disposition of them could be made than was found in the existing acts of Congress controlling the subject.
It is thus explicitly recognized, as was already apparent from the terms of the Constitution itself, that the sole authority to dispose of the public lands was vested in the Congress, and in no other branch of the Federal government. The right of the Executive to withdraw lands which Congress has declared shall be open and free to settlement upon terms which Congress has itself prescribed is said to arise from the tacit consent of Congress in long acquiescence in such Executive action, resulting in an implied authority from Congress to make such withdrawals in the public interest as the Executive deems proper and necessary. There is nothing in the Constitution suggesting or authorizing such augmentation of Executive authority, or justifying him in thus acting in aid of a power which the framers of the Constitution saw fit to vest exclusively in the legislative branch of the government.
It is true that many withdrawals have been made by the President and some of them have been sustained by this court, so that it may be fairly said that, within limitations to be hereinafter stated, Executive withdrawals have the sanction of judicial approval; but, as we read the cases, in no instance has this court sustained a withdrawal of public lands for which Congress has provided a system of disposition, except such withdrawal was(a) in pursuance of a policy already declared by Congress as one for which the public lands might be used, as military and Indian reservations, for which purposes Congress has authorized the use of the public lands from an early day, or (b) in cases where grants of Congress are in such conflict that the purpose of Congress cannot be known, and therefore the Secretary of the Interior has been sustained in withdrawing the lands from entry until Congress had opportunity to relieve the ambiguity of its laws by specifically declaring its policy.
With reference to the reservation of 1824, the court merely said: 'We consider this, too, as having been done by authority of law; for amongst other provisions in the act of 1830, all lands are exempted from pre-emption which are reserved from sale by order of the President.' (And the court held that the act of the Secretary of War was that of the Executive.) But the court later laid down the rule that when lands have been legally appropriated, they immediately become severed from the mass of public lands, and that no subsequent law or proclamation would embrace them, although no reservation had been made of them. From that case, therefore, the following propositions are deduced: That where there is a legal appropriation, reservation is unnecessary, but that the reservation in that case had been ratified by a subsequent act of Congress. And that the appropriation of the land in controversy in that case had been by authority of law, i. e., power placed in the President by Congress by acts passed before and after the exertion of such power by the President.
In Riley v. Welles, 154 U. S. 578, and 19 L. ed. 648, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1166, involving a claim of title under the pre-emption section of the act of September 4, 1841, to land covered by the withdrawal under the act of 1846, this court followed Wolcott v. Des Moines Nav. & R. Co. 5 Wall. 681, 18 L. ed. 689, and repeated its decision as to the effect of the reservation.
The case of Dubuque & S. C. R. Co. v. Des Moines Valley R. Co. 109 U. S. 329, 27 L. ed. 952, 3 Sup. Ct. Rep. 188, also involved a controversy as to whether title vested under the river or railroad grant, and the court held that the validity of the reservation was no longer an open question.
"That any and all lands heretofore reserved to the United States, by any act of Congress, or in any other manner by competent authority, for the purpose of aiding in any object of internal improvement, or for any other purpose whatsoever, be, and the same are hereby, reserved to the United States from the operation of this act, except so far as it may be found necessary to locate the routes of said railroads through such reserved lands, in which case the right of way only shall be granted, subject to the approval of the President of the United States."
In the case now before us Congress in the statutes referred to had expressly subjected these lands to the operation of the placer mining law, and had authorized their exploration for oil, and their location, entry, and purchase as mineral lands. Congress had in this way exercised its power and manifested its will, and such was the situation when the withdrawal in question was made. Deriving the aim of the Executive from the various documents to which we have referred, it may be fairly deduced that the prevailing purpose (and that was the sole purpose so far as the lands here involved were concerned) in making the withdrawal was to anticipate that Congress, having the subject-matter brought to its attention, might and would provide a better and more economical system for the disposition of such public lands, and, secondarily, to preserve some of the oil lands in California as a basis of naval supply in the future, the latter purpose not at that time declared or recognized by Congress. For these purposes the President had no express authority from Congress; in fact, such is not claimed. The authority which may arise by implication, we think, must be limited to those purposes which Congress has itself recognized by either direct legislation or long-continued acquiescence as public purposes for which such withdrawals could be made by the Executive. That the President might, by virtue of his executive authority, take action to preserve public property, or, in aid of the execution of the laws, reserve tracts of land for definitely fixed public purposes, declared by Congress, such as military or Indian reservations, may be conceded; but we are unable to find sanction for the action here taken in withdrawing a large part of the public domain from the operation of the public land laws in the power inherent in this office, as created and defined by the Constitution, or in any way conferred upon him by the legislation of Congress, or in that long acquiescence in the exercise of authority sanctioned by Congress in such manner as to be the equivalent of a grant to the President.
The constitutional authority of the President of the United States (art. 2, §§ 1, 3) includes the executive power of the nation and the duty to see that the laws are faithfully executed. 'The President 'shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed.' Under this clause his duty is not limited to the enforcement of acts of Congress according to their express terms. It includes 'the rights and obligations growing out of the Constitution itself, our international relations, and all the protection implied by the nature of the government under the Constitution." Cooley, Const. Law, p. 121; Re Neagle, 135 U. S. 1, 34 L. ed. 55, 10 Sup. Ct. Rep. 658. The Constitution does not confer upon him any power to enact laws or to suspend or repeal such as the Congress enacts. Kendall v. United States, 12 Pet. 524, 613, 9 L. ed. 1181, 1216. The President's powers are defined by the Constitution of the United States, and the government does not contend that he has any general authority in the disposition of the public land which the Constitution has committed to Congress, and freely concedes the general proposition as to the lack of authority in the President to deal with the laws otherwise than to see that they are faithfully executed.
As we have said, while this court has sustained certain withdrawals made by the Executive, in carrying out a policy for which the use of the public lands had been indicated by congressional legislation, and has sustained the right of withdrawal where conflicting grants had been made by Congress, and additional legislation was needed to expressly declare the purpose of Congress, the court has refused to sustain withdrawals made by the Executive branch of the government when in contravention of the policy for the disposition of the lands declared in acts of Congress. In Southern P. R. Co. v. Bell, 183 U. S. 675, 46 L. ed. 383, 22 Sup. Ct. Rep. 232, it was held that the Secretary of the Interior had no authority to withdraw lands within the indemnity limits of a grant from sale or pre-emption, when Congress had indicated its purpose that such lands might be taken up by settlers before the road had exercised its right of selection. In Brandon v. Ard, 211 U. S. 11, 53 L. ed. 68, 29 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1, the conflict was between an attempted withdrawal in aid of a land grant and a homestead settlement three years later, and this court held that the withdrawal of the lands from sale or settlement prior to the definite location of the road, and before they were selected to supply deficiencies in place or granted limits, was without authority of law, and that the homestead settlement, under existing laws of Congress, must prevail over such attempted withdrawal. The same principle was declared and enforced in Osborn v. Froyseth, 216 U. S. 571, 54 L. ed. 619, 30 Sup. Ct. Rep. 420.
We think the rule thus stated is the result of the previous decisions of this court, when properly construed, and is consistent with the authority over the public lands given to Congress under the Constitution, and properly rests Executive power to deal with such lands by way of withdrawal upon the express or implied authority of the Congress. In other words, it may be fairly said that a given withdrawal must have been expressly authorized by Congress, or there must be that clear implication of congressional authority which is equivalent to express authority; and when such authority is wanting there can be no Executive withdrawal of lands from the operation of an act of Congress which would otherwise control.
'Sec. 2. That all lands withdrawn under the provisions of this act shall at all times be open to exploration, discovery, occupation, and purchase, under the mining laws of the United States, so far as the same apply to minerals other than coal, oil, gas, and phosphates: Provided, That the rights of any person who, at the date of any order of withdrawal heretofore or hereafter made, is a bona fide occupant or claimant of oil or gas bearing lands, and who, at such date, is in diligent prosecution of work leading to discovery of oil or gas, shall not be affected or impaired by such order, so long as such occupant or claimant shall continue in diligent prosecution of said work: And provided further, That this act shall not be construed as a recognition, abridgment, or enlargement of any asserted rights or claims initiated upon any oil or gas bearing lands after any withdrawal of such lands made prior to the passage of this act: And provided further, That there shall be excepted from the force and effect of any withdrawal made under the provisions of this act all lands which are, on the date of such withdrawal, embraced in any lawful homestead or desert-land entry theretofore made, or upon which any valid settlement has been made and is at said date being maintained and perfected pursuant to law; but the terms of this proviso shall not continue to apply to any particular tract of land unless the entryman or settler shall continue to comply with the law under which the entry or settlement was made. And provided further, That hereafter no forest reserve shall be created, nor shall any additions be made to one heretofore created within the limits of the states of Oregon, Washington, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, or Wyoming, except by act of Congress.
It is to be noted that the act of June 25, 1910, conferred specific authority for the future upon the President, but gave no approval to the withdrawal of September 27, 1909, containing instead an express provision that the act should not be construed as a recognition, abridgment, or enlargement of any asserted rights or claims initiated upon any oil or gas bearing lands after the withdrawal of such lands, made prior to the passage of the act. While the order of September 27, 1909, withdrew the lands from all form of settlement, location, sale, entry, or disposal under the mineral or nonmineral public land laws, the act of June 25, 1910, excepts from the power of withdrawal conferred upon the President lands embraced in any lawful homestead or desertland entry theretofore made or upon which any valid settlement had been made and was being maintained and perfected pursuant to law. Furthermore, the act provides that the rights of a bona fide occupant or claimant of oil or gas bearing lands, complying with the provisions of the statute relating thereto, shall not be affected or impaired by a subsequent order of withdrawal. In this statute there certainly is no congressional assent to the Executive withdrawal of September 27, 1909. The validation or ratification asked in the President's message was withheld, and only restricted authority for the future was granted in the act of June 25, 1910; not only so, but the rights of the locators involved in this case were preserved to whatever extent they existed in the absence of a ratification of the withdrawal. When express ratification is thus asked and refused, in our view no power by implication can be fairly inferred. Barden v. Northern P. R. Co. 154 U. S. 288, 317, 38 L. ed. 992, 998, 14 Sup. Ct. Rep. 1030; Durousseau v. United States, 6 Cranch, 307, 318, 3 L. ed. 232, 235; Eyster v. Centennial Bd. of Finance, 94 U. S. 500, 503, 24 L. ed. 188, 189. The act of June 25, 1910, neither ratified the withdrawal of September 27, 1909, nor empowered the President so to do by his order of July 2, 1910.
In our opinion, the action of the Executive Department in this case, originating in the expressed view of a subordinate official of the Interior Department as to the desirability of a different system of public land disposal than that contained in the lawful enactments of Congress,* did not justify the President in withdrawing this large body of land from the operation of the law, and virtually suspending, as he necessarily did, the operation of that law, at least until a different view expressed by him could be considered by the Congress. This conclusion is reinforced in this particular instance by the refusal of Congress to ratify the action of the President, and the enactment of a new statute authorizing the disposition of the public lands by a method essentially different from that proposed by the Executive.
Departmental ruling as to the existence of the power.
1 Land Dec. 702, 31, 552; 13 Land Dec. 426, 607, 628; 1 Land Dec. 553; 29 Land Dec. 33; 31 Land Dec. 195; 34 Land Dec. 145; 6 Land Dec. 317.
14 House Doc. 217 (1898-99).
18 House Doc. 387 (1905-6).
42 House Doc. 93 (1908).
43 House Doc. 44 (1909).
The defendant appends to its brief a list of statutes giving discretionary power to the Executive to make withdrawals, those relating to military or analogous purposes being, 1 Stat. at L. 252, note; 1 Stat. at L. 352, chap. 14; 1 Stat. at L. 555, chap. 38; 2 Stat. at L. 453, chap. 7; 2 Stat. at L. 547, chap. 2; 2 Stat. at L. 750, chap. 99; 4 Stat. at L. 687, chap. 76; 9 Stat. at L. 500, chap. 76; 10 Stat. at L. 27, chap. 77; 10 Stat. at L. 608, chap. 106; those for Indian purposes being, 4 Stat. at L. 411, chap. 148; 10 Stat. at L. 238, chap. 104; 11 Stat. at L. 401, chap. 66; 12 Stat. at L. 819, chap. 119; 13 Stat. at L. 40, chap. 48; for a lighthouse, 1 Stat. at L. 54, chap. 9; with reference to salt springs, 2 Stat. at L. 235, chap. 28; 2 Stat. at L. 280, chap. 35; 2 Stat. at L. 394, chap. 39; and lead mines, 2 Stat. at L. 449, chap. 49; for town sites, 3 Stat. at L. 375, chap. 62; 12 Stat. at L. 754, chap. 80, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4784; for reservoirs, 25 Stat. at L. 526, chap. 1069, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4696; and irrigation work, 32 Stat. at L. 388, chap. 1093, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 4700; for lands containing timber for naval purposes, 3 Stat. at L. 347, chap. 22; and for forest reserves, 26 Stat. at L. 1103, chap. 561, Comp. Stat. 1913, § 5121, 30 Stat. at L. 36, chap. 2.

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 § 4784
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