Branson School District Re-82 v. Romer

EBEL, Circuit Judge.

This case presents the question of whether the voters of a state may alter the management principles guiding the state’s trusteeship of public lands without violating the terms of a century-old trust established by Congress when the state entered the Union. Because we find that the recent changes made in the management of Colorado’s land trust for public schools conform to the trust restrictions created by Congress in 1875, we hold that “Amendment 16” to the Colorado Constitution approved by state voters in 1996 does not violate the Supremacy Clause of Article VI of the…