A federal appeals court has breathed new life into Utah’s legal battle against the massive expansion of two national monuments, ruling that the White House does not have a blank check when locking up public land.
In a decision handed down Tuesday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit overturned a lower court’s dismissal of a lawsuit filed by the State of Utah alongside Garfield and Kane counties. Local officials are seeking to overturn the 2021 expansion of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, which together encompass roughly 3.23 million acres of territory.
The central issue before the court was whether a president’s actions under the 1906 Antiquities Act are entirely insulated from judicial scrutiny. Writing for the majority, Circuit Judge Joel M. Carson declared that federal courts have a clear role in ensuring the executive branch stays within the boundaries drawn by Congress.
“The President of the United States must carefully exercise the power Congress delegates to him, remaining within statutory limits and avoiding the wilderness beyond,” Carson wrote. He added that “when the President exceeds statutory limits placed on his power, his actions are not those of the sovereign,” meaning the administration cannot claim sovereign immunity to dodge a lawsuit.
The shifting borders of the two Utah monuments have been a political football for three decades. President Bill Clinton established Grand Staircase-Escalante in 1996, and President Barack Obama created Bears Ears in 2016. President Donald Trump dramatically downsized both monuments in 2017, only for President Joe Biden to restore and expand them past their original boundaries in 2021. Because the lawsuit targets the official capacity of the office, Donald J. Trump is now named as the lead defendant following his return to the presidency.
Utah officials argue that the current boundaries—an area more than double the size of Delaware—clearly violate the text of the Antiquities Act. The law allows presidents to protect “historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest,” but explicitly mandates that such reservations be restricted to the “smallest area compatible with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.”
The state contends that the federal government illegally swept millions of acres of ordinary terrain into the monuments by labeling generic features like shrubs, boulders, and mule deer as protected scientific objects. A federal district court judge previously dismissed the case, agreeing with the federal government that presidential discretion under the Act was unreviewable. The Tenth Circuit rejected that premise, noting that giving the executive unchecked authority could lead to absurd results, such as cordoning off over half of Utah to protect a single historic miner’s cabin.
The decision was not unanimous. Circuit Judge Timothy M. Federico strongly dissented, arguing that the majority’s ruling opens the door for courts to overstep their bounds and interfere with executive discretion. Federico wrote that the majority’s instructions will force the lower court to “essentially dissect and pick apart the proclamations.” He cautioned that Utah’s legal arguments “basically dress up a typical statutory-authority” dispute to circumvent federal immunity laws.
While the ruling marks a significant procedural victory for Utah, the appeals court did not decide whether the current size of the monuments actually violates federal law. Instead, the panel remanded the case to the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah, where a judge will now evaluate the facts to determine if the sprawling boundaries truly represent the smallest area compatible with protecting the region’s historic artifacts.
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