“You put politics in the scale:” Stewart L. Udall and excess land law in California, 1961–1968

During the 1960s, Interior Secretary Stewart Udall faced controversy about enforcement of federal reclamation’s excess land law on California’s San Luis Project and the Imperial Irrigation District. The San Luis Project was a complex mix of state and federal funding and operation, and Udall ruled that excess land law did not apply to the state service area. Yet he overruled past practice on the Imperial Irrigation District and called for enforcement of land limits. This paper examines Udall’s effort to balance politics and principle.