This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2015, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

In law, the term "enabling" means giving someone or some legal jurisdiction the power to do something. Such as turning a territory into a state.

In psychiatry, the term "enabling" means making a horribly unwise attempt to help someone with a substance-abuse problem get though another day without actually facing their problem. Like making up excuses for an alcoholic husband who is too hung over to make it to work.

The Utah Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands has willfully misread the Utah Enabling Act, the 1894 federal law that granted statehood to the Utah Territory, seeking to pursue an absurd and expensive course of action that will be the political equivalent of helping a junkie get his next fix.

One that will cost Utah taxpayers upwards of $14 million.

The commission voted Wednesday to have their hand-picked, out-of-state legal counsel draw up a lawsuit that they hope to file directly with the U.S. Supreme Court. The suit would argue that the federal government is not just unwise, but in violation of federal law, to maintain ownership and control of the two-thirds of the land in the state.

And these enablers have enablers.

While Utah politicians are often heard to argue that Utahns know best about what this state needs, the commission had to go all the way to New Orleans to find a law firm creative — enabling — enough to cook up an argument about states rights that was swept away at Appomattox Court House in 1865. Which has already cost the state $500,000.

By giving the state that specious advice, the Davillier Law Group is setting itself up to be the Gene Schaerr of the public lands fight. He's the out-of-town lawyer who siphoned big money (though not nearly $14 million) out of Utah's coffers on his way to making ridiculous and quickly rejected arguments about how same-sex marriage needed to remain illegal because it would hurt other marriages.

Meanwhile, some genuine local legal eagles, land-policy specialists at the University of Utah, told the same commission that the history of federal law makes it clear that, financially, the land grab is doomed to fail.

That's because even if the state could wrestle millions of acres of dirt away from the National Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management, the feds would forever retain the rights to the minerals under that land. And without the ability to exploit the oil, gas and other subterranean riches, the state's scheme to fund the maintenance of all that land without federal money just doesn't pencil out.

Gov. Gary Herbert, Attorney General Sean Reyes, the Utah Legislature, somebody needs to make it clear right away that they will not pay for any more tilting at this windmill. Utah does not need to be laughed out of court again.