Reading Room Document

Exchange Authority for Kaloko Honokohau National Historical Park

The Department of the Interior is authorized to acquire privately held land for the Kaloko Honokohau National Historical Park by exchanging it for surplus federal land of equivalent value within the State of Hawaii. Its exchange authority does not, however, extend to excess as well as surplus federal land, nor to land outside the State of Hawaii. The power to dispose of property of the United States is committed under the Constitution to Congress, and the Executive's disposition of federal land in any particular case must be undertaken in accordance with whatever rules Congress has established for this purpose. In this case, the Department of the Interior's specific exchange authority in connection with the Park is presumptively limited by the otherwise applicable general legal restrictions on federal land exchange transactions. The OLC does not provide release dates for its opinions, so the release date listed is the date on which the opinion was authored. The original opinion is available at www.justice.gov/file/23026/download.

May 20, 1982