Kleppe v. New Mexico

Kleppe v. New Mexico
Supreme Court of the United States
Argued March 23, 1976 Decided June 17, 1976
Full case name	Thomas S. Kleppe, Secretary of the Interior v. New Mexico, et al.
Citations	426 U.S. 529 (more) 96 S. Ct. 2285; 49 L. Ed. 2d 34
Case history
Prior	New Mexico v. Morton, 406 F. Supp. 1237 (D.N.M. 1975)
Holding
The Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971 was a constitutional exercise of congressional power under the property clause at least insofar as it was applied to prohibit the New Mexico Livestock Board from entering upon the public lands of the United States and removing wild burros under the New Mexico Estray Law.
Court membership
Chief Justice Warren E. Burger Associate Justices William J. Brennan Jr. · Potter Stewart Byron White · Thurgood Marshall Harry Blackmun · Lewis F. Powell Jr. William Rehnquist · John P. Stevens
Case opinion
Majority	Marshall, joined by unanimous
Laws applied
U.S. Const. art. IV, § 3, cl. 2; 16 U.S.C. § 1331, et seq.

Kleppe v. New Mexico, 426 U.S. 529 (1976), was a United States Supreme Court decision that unanimously held the Wild and Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act of 1971, passed in 1971 by the United States Congress to protect these animals from "capture, branding, harassment, or death", to be a constitutional exercise of congressional power. In February 1974, the New Mexico Livestock Board rounded up and sold 19 unbranded burros from Bureau of Land Management (BLM) land. When the BLM demanded the animals' return, the state filed suit claiming that the Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act was unconstitutional, claiming the federal government did not have the power to control animals in federal lands unless they were items in interstate commerce or causing damage to the public lands.