You CAN Fight City Hall: Red River Lawsuit Ends in Settlement

A years-long fight between Texas landowners and federal agents is over. The legal battle was between seven families that own thousands of acres along the Red River in northern Texas, and the Bureau of Land Management.

In 2009, the BLM surveyed land that the families had occupied for generations. The Texas Public Policy Foundation, which represented the families, claimed the BLM had arbitrarily seized the land, on which the families paid taxes. The bureau, in the meantime, noted that a 1923 U.S. Supreme Court decision gave control of the land to the federal government, based off agreements originally formed in the Louisiana Purchase.

The families filed suit in 2015, and were joined by several counties and the Texas General Land Office. The settlement details the boundaries of the border between Texas and Oklahoma, and federal land along the Red River. It also reduces the bureau’s surveying activity on the land.

For comments, questions or concerns, please contact Texas Commercial Real Estate Editor Amy Sorter