Utah sues Biden administration over monument restoration moves
SALT LAKE CITY — Republican state leaders in Utah sued the Biden administration Wednesday over the president’s decision last year to restore two sprawling national monuments on rugged lands sacred to Native Americans that former President Donald Trump had downsized.
The lawsuit over Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments alleges that President Joe Biden’s action violates the authority granted in a century-old law that allows presidents to protect sites considered historically, geographically or culturally important.
The legal argument has been repeated for years by Republicans and the legal challenge had been expected since Biden made the move in October 2021. The lawsuit is the latest twist in a yearslong debate spanning three presidential administrations about proper protections of lands that include ancient cliff dwellings and petroglyphs.
Together, the monuments encompass an area nearly the size of Connecticut, and were created by Democratic administrations.
Trump’s decision to cut them in size opened them for mining and other development, although market dynamics kept that in check.
“President Biden made no attempt to explain how 3.23 million acres constituted the ‘smallest area compatible with the proper care and management’ of these supposed monuments,” the lawsuit claims, citing the 1906 Antiquities Act outlining rules for designating national monuments.
Two southern Utah counties, Kane and Garfield, joined the lawsuit.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Wednesday afternoon that the administration did not have any comment about the lawsuit.
