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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The Utah Senate has approved the use of eminent domain to take federal land in the state.

More than 60 percent of Utah is owned by the U.S. government, and policy makers here have long complained that federal ownership hinders their ability to generate tax revenue and adequately fund public schools.

Utah spends less per student than any other state and has the nation's largest class sizes.

The goal of the bill approved Tuesday is to spark a U.S. Supreme Court battle that legislators' own attorneys acknowledge has little chance of success.

But Attorney General Mark Shurtleff and other Republicans say the case is still worth fighting because if the state wins it could reap billions of dollars for state schools.

(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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