A federal appeals court recently reversed a lower court decision that dismissed challenges to the monument designations of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah.
On June 23, the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a district court’s dismissal of a lawsuit that claimed President Joe Biden’s expansion of the two national monuments exceeded his authority under the Antiquities Act.
In 2021, Biden restored the boundaries of the two national monuments after President Donald Trump previously reduced their size in 2017. Biden relied upon the Antiquities Act for his action, which allows a president to designate federal public lands or waters containing historic cultural or natural resources as national monuments, provided the monument size is the smallest required to protect the objects.
The state of Utah, two counties, the BlueRibbon Coalition and others challenged Biden’s designation, contending that the expansions exceeded the limits Congress placed on the president’s authority under the Antiquities Act.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Utah dismissed their suit, finding that the court could not review the case because of sovereign immunity. Plaintiffs appealed, contending the court ignored the “raft of precedent” that allows lawsuits against a president when the president exceeds its powers granted under Congress (ultra vires exception).
The 10th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 2-1 decision found that the district court erred in dismissing the plaintiffs’ claims, and that the lower court based its determinations on a flawed view of sovereign immunity’s ultra vires exception.
The case was remanded back to the U.S. District Court in Utah, although the 10th Circuit affirmed the lower court’s dismissal of BlueRibbon Coalition and the individual plaintiffs from the case. Biden’s boundaries for the national monuments will remain in place as the case proceeds.
Background
President Bill Clinton created the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, and President Barack Obama created the Bears Ears National Monument in 2016, with the monuments totaling 3.05 million acres.
The Biden and Trump administrations took opposing sides on whether the national monuments’ size was the smallest required to protect the contained objects, as mandated under the Antiquities Act. Trump in 2017 reduced the land reserved to 1.1 million acres, followed shortly by Biden in 2021 reversing the order and expanding the national monuments to 3.23 million acres.
Utah government officials and local residents took issue with Biden’s designation, complaining that “once-thriving rural Utah communities and their citizens are suffering economic deprivation at the hand of their own federal government, which a national monument tourism economy fails to alleviate,” according to court documents.
The state of Utah and Kane and Garfield counties sued the Biden administration to enjoin the expansion of the monuments. Soon after, the BlueRibbon Coalition—a group that fights to preserve recreational access to public lands—and several individuals also filed suit. The district court consolidated the cases. Several Tribes and environmental groups intervened on behalf of the defendants.
Reactions
Although they differ on the desired outcome, parties on both sides agree the issue should ultimately be resolved by the courts.
“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,” said Utah Attorney General Derek Brown in a statement.
He continued that for years, the federal government has said that a president’s monument proclamation is unlimited and can’t be reviewed.
“The Tenth Circuit has rejected that argument, and agreed with our argument that federal courts do have the authority—and even the responsibility—to check these designations against the limits Congress deliberately wrote into the statute over 120 years ago,” Brown said.
The National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA) said the national monuments form the backbone of Utah’s tourism economy and are culturally significant to many Tribes in the region.
“By remanding this case back to the U.S. District Court in Utah, this decision gives us a renewed opportunity to defend a president’s authority under the Antiquities Act and justify the boundaries President Biden decided upon,” said NPCA Southwest Campaign Director Erika Pollard. “The Antiquities Act is clear: it gives presidents the authority to designate national monuments, but no president has the authority to dismantle them.” — Anna Miller Fortozo, WLJ managing editor
