Republicans suing again to stop executive from protecting public land

In February the Interior Department and Bureau of Indian Affairs approved the use of $31 million so the Klamath Tribes can acquire nearly 90,000 acres of private land within their historic reservation boundaries for ecosystem restoration and economic development.

Under the 1906 Antiquities Act and the America the Beautiful initiative President Joe Biden has moved to create the 400,000-acre Dolores River Canyon Country National Monument in Mesa and Montrose counties in Colorado and the 245,000 acre Mimbres Peaks National Monument in Luna County, New Mexico.

But Republicans, including South Dakota's former US Representative Kristi Noem, have been trying to restrict execution of the law since President Theodore Roosevelt first used it to create Devils Tower National Monument and seventeen other properties some of which became national and historical parks. So far, the Supreme Court of the United States has supported the statute's presidential powers with only two exceptions. My old Brookings pal, Scott Matteson had his artifact collection impounded and was prosecuted under provisions of the 1906 law. 

Now, Republicans in Arizona and Utah are challenging President Biden's authority to limit grazing permits on Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument and uranium mining leases on Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments.

“The Antiquities Act exists to protect Native American archeological sites, not to give presidents unlimited power to declare vast swaths of land and sea out of bounds for productive use,” Frank Garrison, an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation, said in a statement. Biden has created five national monuments spanning more than 1.5 million acres since 2022 and restored 2 million acres to two Utah sites reduced during the Trump administration. [Arizona monument created by Biden faces volley of lawsuits]

What now? If that's indeed the case President Joe should simply find the money, buy out Republican welfare ranchers and remand the ground to Nations like the Klamath Tribes have been able to do.

ip images: Chaco Culture National Historical Park grew out one of the national monuments created by President Roosevelt.

Learn more at the Colorado Sun.