I'm puzzled by why so many of you seem to think the Smithsonian is
playing such an active role in this. First of all, the meteorite was
brought to them for identification; the SI did not make some kind of
power play to get it. And there is no indication that they are making a
power play to keep it. From talking to their people right after the
fall and when I visited this week, it's clear that they would be pleased
if the meteorite ended up in the National Meteorite Collection. But I
have not seen or read any evidence that they are in any way fighting to
prevent others from getting it back, legally or politically. People
should just relax and wait to see how this plays out before jumping to
conclusions.
Jeff
On 2010-02-05 9:39 PM, Phil Whitmer wrote:
Hiya Carl, gun lovers and haters:
I was merely stating the law as it now stands. If a meteorite falls on
your property, you own it. An open and shut case. If the Smithsonian
wants to appeal to the Supreme Court, the Court could possibly rule
that current meteorite laws are unconstitutional. It's extremely
unlikely they would hear the case. It's highly unlikely even a Circuit
judge would strike down current meteorite laws as unconstitutional. Or
any judge for that matter. The Smithsonian has the lawyers and the
funding of the federal gov't backing them, they could try to argue the
laws are unconstitutional, highly unlikely as there is practically no
chance they would win.
What they could do is go straight to the President and get either a
presidential decree or have the Justice Dep't write some memos like
they did legalizing torture. Again not a chance.
More likely they could get a Congressman to introduce a bill changing
the meteorite laws, but it would never make it out of the first round
of sub-committes.
Possession might be nine tenths of the law, but I'll be dollars to
donuts the Smithsonian gives it back.
Phil Whitmer
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Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman phone: (703) 648-6184
US Geological Survey fax: (703) 648-6383
954 National Center
Reston, VA 20192, USA
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