Second court fight over presidential power to shrink protected lands
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Overview
Updated YesterdayPatagonia, five tribal nations, and environmental groups took the Trump administration to court Wednesday over its decision to shrink Utah's Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments by 90 percent. The suits revive a 2017 legal fight that stalled when the Biden administration restored the monuments.
The Supreme Court has never settled whether the Antiquities Act lets a president undo a predecessor's monument designation. The answer determines who controls roughly three million acres of red-rock country, and whether the mining and drilling claims filed since July can move forward.
Why it matters
If the shrink stands, mining moves into protected red-rock country, and future presidents gain power to erase land protections at will.
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People Involved
Organizations Involved
Ventura, California-based outdoor retailer that has become a frequent litigant against the administration's environmental policies.
Federal agency that manages public lands, including national monuments and the mineral rights beneath them.
The coalition that petitioned the Obama administration to create Bears Ears and negotiated its co-management.
Timeline
June 1906 September 2026
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Patagonia, tribes, greens file suit
Latest LegalPlaintiffs argue the Antiquities Act gives presidents no power to undo a monument designation.
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Trump again shrinks the monuments
ProclamationEach monument is cut by about 90 percent, opening millions of acres to mining and drilling.
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Biden restores the monuments
ProclamationThe original boundaries are restored; the 2017 litigation goes on hold.
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Trump shrinks both monuments
ProclamationTribes and environmental groups immediately file suit challenging the reductions.
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Obama creates Bears Ears
ProclamationThe first national monument created at the request of five tribal nations, spanning 1.35 million acres.
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Clinton creates Grand Staircase-Escalante
ProclamationThe 1.7-million-acre monument is established in southern Utah over local opposition.
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Roosevelt signs the Antiquities Act
LawThe law grants presidents power to protect federal lands and historic sites as national monuments.
Historical Context
3 moments from history that rhyme with this story — and how they unfolded.
Grand Teton settlement (1950)
President Franklin Roosevelt enlarged Grand Teton National Park by proclamation in 1943, provoking lawsuits from Wyoming officials. Congress resolved the fight in 1950 with legislation codifying the park's boundaries.
The statute ended the litigation and set a compromise boundary.
It became the model for resolving monument fights through Congress rather than the courts.
Shows the alternative path — legislative settlement — that could end the current dispute without a Supreme Court ruling.
Grand Staircase-Escalante designation (1996)
President Clinton created the 1.7-million-acre monument in southern Utah, halting a proposed coal mine on the Kaiparowits Plateau. Local officials and industry fought the designation for years.
The coal mine was abandoned; the monument became a tourism draw.
It established the modern pattern: presidents use the Antiquities Act to lock up lands against resource extraction, and opponents challenge the scope of that power.
The 2026 fight reopens the same conflict — protected red-rock lands versus energy development — with the same law at its center.
Bears Ears legal challenge (2017–2023)
After Trump's first shrink, tribes and environmental groups sued. In 2021, a federal judge ruled the shrink exceeded presidential authority. The D.C. Circuit reversed on standing grounds, and the Supreme Court declined to hear the appeal. The legality of monument reduction was never decided.
The shrink was reversed when Biden restored the monuments in October 2021, mooting the core dispute.
The merits question — whether presidents can shrink monuments — remains open, which is why the 2026 suits revive the same argument.
The new lawsuits are an attempt to get a court to finally rule on the question that escaped review last time.
