The Department of Justice (DOJ) is requesting the Supreme Court dismiss Utah’s lawsuit seeking control of 18.5 million acres of federal lands, contending the suit “plainly lacks merit.”
Utah asserted in an August complaint that the government should transfer millions of acres of Bureau of Land Management land to the state because the property is not reserved for a designated purpose.
“It is obvious to all of us that the federal government has increasingly failed to keep our lands accessible and properly managed,” Utah Gov. Spencer Cox (R) said at an earlier press conference. “Utah deserves priority when it comes to managing this land.”
In a brief filed with the U.S. Supreme Court in late November, the agency said the state does not meet the Supreme Court’s criteria for immediate attention and faces significant jurisdictional and procedural barriers.
The land in questions totals about one-third of total land in the state.
DOJ argument
The DOJ argued that Utah’s suit should be heard by lower courts first. “Utah would have an adequate opportunity to litigate those threshold issues—and, if it prevails on those issues, to litigate the merits—in district court,” the agency wrote in a 41-page brief.
There is no sound basis for why the Supreme Court should change its usual approach to refusing permission when a state wants to sue the federal government, the DOJ continued.
The agency also argued that Utah’s assertion that the federal government is making it harder for the state to manage its own lands is misplaced and legally unactionable.
“Utah raises no claim that it owns the ‘18.5 million acres’ of land at issue,” the DOJ wrote. “Utah instead agrees that the United States owns that land, but argues that the Constitution requires Congress to convey that land to it or to third parties whom Utah can then tax and regulate.”
The state therefore claims that Congress’ failure to convey the land injures the state by depriving it of tax revenue, the ability to exercise eminent domain and the power to decide how the land is used, DOJ said. However, the agency continued, the state failed to show that judicial relief would redress those injuries.
Finally, the DOJ wrote, Utah’s suit is untimely as a plaintiff must sue within six years of the action occurring under the statute of limitations. “Utah has brought this suit 176 years after the United States acquired the lands at issue, 128 years after Utah joined the Union, and 48 years after Congress adopted the statutory provisions that Utah challenges,” the agency said.
The Supreme Court has yet to decide whether to take the case up.
“If the Supreme Court rules in Utah’s favor, it would be a major victory for states’ rights, national food and energy security, and set an important precedent in the fight against environmental extremists, federal government overreach, and globalists’ desires,” said Protect the Harvest, a non-profit organization that advocates for agriculture and rural life.
Environmental groups call Utah’s lawsuit a power-grab and an attack on public lands. “The lawsuit is an enormous waste of taxpayer dollars at a time when Utah’s public lands continue to be an economic engine and lifeline for communities throughout the state and when Utahns and all Americans overwhelmingly support their access to them,” said the Conservation Lands Foundation. — Anna Miller, WLJ managing editor
