A challenge to two national monuments in Utah can continue after an anticipated ruling from a federal appeals court in Denver Tuesday.
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals is sending an ongoing case over the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante national monuments back to a lower court.
It allows a lawsuit from Utah, a couple of its counties and more plaintiffs to move forward. They challenged President Biden’s monument designations, saying he overstepped presidential authority by making them too broad in scope and big in size.
In his first term, President Trump dramatically shrunk the size of the monuments. Biden reversed the move, restoring both monuments and slightly expanding Bears Ears.
A district court said it couldn’t judge the president’s decisions because of "sovereign immunity," and because the presidential power under the 1906 Antiquities Act is so expansive that monument proclamations should essentially be off limits to court review.
But in a 2-1 decision, the 10th Circuit judges said that argument didn’t hold water, and that courts can review monument designations.
“Today’s ruling is a win for Utah, and for every Western state that has watched federal administrations treat the Antiquities Act like a blank check to lock up millions of acres,” Utah Attorney General Derek Brown told The Salt Lake Tribune in a statement. “For years, the federal government has insisted that a president’s monument proclamation is unlimited and can’t be reviewed.”
But environmental groups aren't taking the ruling as a loss.
Tom Delehanty, a senior attorney with Earthjustice's Rocky Mountain Office, said the Utah monument protections are still intact.
"They're beautiful, historic cultural landscapes that are treasures in southern Utah and beloved by lots of people, including local communities, including a whole host of Native American tribes, and it's fantastic that the protections for these spectacular places remain in place," he said.
The case now goes back to district court for a closer look. But Delehanty doesn't expect it to unwind protections or open up a pathway for lawsuits against other monuments. That's because, he said, precedents have affirmed that court reviews of monuments should be limited and deferential to presidents.
"It certainly does not throw open the courthouse doors to a whole additional slew of challenges to national monuments," he said. "One thing we will be watching is to make sure that the district court does not overstep in its review."
This story was produced by the Mountain West News Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Nevada Public Radio, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, KUNR in Nevada, KUNC in Colorado and KANW in New Mexico, with support from affiliate stations across the region. Funding for the Mountain West News Bureau is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
