richyoung: "Without a specific mention in the Constitution that the FedGov can have parks, etc - thay AREN'T legal!"
The Constitution doesn't specifically mention aircraft carriers, either. Or any other ships of war. Or cannon, or shot. Illegal?
The Constitution gives Congress the right to raise and equip a navy and an army, however they see fit. How they choose to equip them is, to put it plainly, "up to them", so far as there is a reasonable conection to their power to do so. The specific language is:
To raise and support Armies, but no Appropriation of Money to that Use shall be for a longer Term than two Years;
To provide and maintain a Navy;
To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the land and naval Forces;
To provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insurrections and repel Invasions;
To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining, the Militia, and for governing such Part of them as may be employed in the Service of the United States, reserving to the States respectively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Authority of training the Militia according to the discipline prescribed by Congress;
On the other hand, there would have been NO NEED to spell out that the FedGov
CAN own a capitol, forts, navy bases, etc, if the FedGov had an unlimited right to own whatever it wanted. The fact that
specific types of property were authorized shows that no such unlimited right of ownership exists - otherwise, why list things that would be covered by an unlimited right? Again, the language:
To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceeding ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become the Seat of the Government of the United States, and to exercise like Authority over all Places purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erection of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, dock-Yards, and other needful Buildings;
See any parks in there? This power is further limited by:
Article the twelfth [Amendment X]
The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.
That basicaly says that if the FedGov isn't
specifically allowed to do it, its prohibited tothe FedGov. No parks.