With loss in monument case, Utah loses bid to assert control over public lands
Utah recently lost a bid to reduce the size of a pair of national monuments in the state when a judge ruled against it.
This is not its first attempt to assert control over public lands.
In 2012, Utah passed a bill demanding that the federal government transfer millions of acres of public lands over to the state, though critics said it lacked authority to do so.
After President Joe Biden restored Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah that President Donald Trump downsized, the state filed suit to shrink them again, and lost.
Aaron Weiss of the Center for Western Priorities said the court had more than a century of legislation and case law backing it.
"What this ruling is, is and it really is a very definitive one, is saying in no uncertain terms, that there is no question here for the courts to even consider," Weiss said.
Presidents have had the authority to create monuments since the Antiquities Act was passed in 1906.
