― U.S. Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) and U.S. Rep. Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) have led 26 Senators and 92 House members to submit an amicus brief in support of plaintiffs in five cases before the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia that challenge the Trump administration’s decision to significantly diminish the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in southern Utah.
In the brief, the lawmakers argue that under the Constitution, no president has the power to shrink or reduce national monuments since that power resides with Congress alone — a case that members of Congress are uniquely positioned to make. Under the Antiquities Act, Congress has granted presidents the authority to designate national monuments—not reduce or abolish them, and the amicus is being filed now to defend Congress’s prerogatives as a federal court is weighing challenges to the Trump administration’s attempt to dramatically reduce previously established monuments.
The full text of the amicus brief is available HERE. The full text of the motion to file is available HERE. A summary is available HERE.
Udall is the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies, and Grijalva is the top Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee.
At issue in these cases is whether any president, including President Donald Trump, has the legal authority to reduce or abolish national monuments.
According to the plaintiffs, which include Native American Tribes, scientific groups, businesses and conservation organizations, the Trump administration’s actions violate both the Constitution and the Antiquities Act of 1906. President Trump’s order attempts to slash more than 2 million acres of protected land — reducing the size of Bears Ears from 1.35 million acres to approximately 200,000 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante from 1.9 million acres to approximately 1 million acres — the largest ever elimination of public land protection in the country’s history.
“For more than a century, the Antiquities Act has empowered presidents — Republican and Democrat alike — to safeguard iconic landscapes and vulnerable cultural treasures, in New Mexico and across the country. These national monuments protect some of our most spectacular wilderness and breathtaking lands – what President Teddy Roosevelt called ‘the most glorious heritage a people ever received,’” said Udall. “By revoking protections for millions of acres of public lands, President Trump has overstepped the authority delegated to presidents by Congress, putting cherished national monuments like Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante on the chopping block in an egregious giveaway to big corporations. This is a direct affront to the Native American Tribes who advocated for years to designate Bears Ears, the sacred ground that is their ancestral home, as well as the small businesses, outdoor enthusiasts, and local communities that rely on our thriving $887 billion recreation economy to attract jobs and tourism. With this action, President Trump would give away America’s national crown jewels and flout Congress’s constitutional control over public lands. Our system of checks and balances can only function if we enforce the separation of powers, and we must respect Congress’s constitutional role as the sole steward of our public lands.”
“President Trump and his enablers don’t seem to care what laws stand in the way of their anti-environmental agenda, and they need to be stopped here and now,” said Grijalva. “These monument reductions are illegal and open the door to presidents ignoring Congress whenever they feel like it. This case is a test of our basic separation of powers, and Republicans cheering on the president today may feel very differently if he wins the battle only to have a Democrat follow him in the White House.”
The amicus brief makes the following core arguments:
First, under the Constitution, Congress has absolute control over federal lands. The Constitution grants broad authority to Congress alone over any public lands owned by the federal government. In the Antiquities Act, Congress delegates to the president the limited power to establish national monuments – but not to abolish or diminish existing monuments. The Trump administration’s actions are a clear overreach of the executive branch’s powers that cut against the intent of the law as well as the text of the Constitution.
Second, interpreting the Antiquities Act to prohibit presidents from reducing the size of national monuments serves the Act’s purpose, which is to safeguard vulnerable national treasures. With the Antiquities Act, Congress gives the president a limited delegation of its power to protect places at risk. Giving presidents a discretionary power to prevent these national treasures from being damaged, without waiting for the passage of legislation, helps ensure that important landmarks and objects will not be destroyed before Congress has an opportunity to act. By contrast, the decision to reduce or eliminate an existing monument does not involve the same urgency, so it was equally sensible for Congress to reserve that power to the slower and more deliberative legislative process. This interpretation is supported by the circumstances that led to the Act’s passage—a concern that newly discovered American archeological sites and artifacts were being looted.
Third, Congress has not implicitly granted presidents the power to diminish national monuments simply because it did not object to previous reductions to monuments made by presidents in the twentieth century. Congress’s lack of objection in these instances does not mean that it has relinquished its Constitutional duties to the executive branch. The brief makes a clear distinction between where there is legislative granting of authority versus where the court must interpret Constitutional authority. In the Antiquities Act, Congress has spoken precisely to the president’s power regarding national monuments – and limited that power to the designation of new monuments.
In addition to Udall and Grijalva, the amicus brief was signed by Senators Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y), Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Jeffrey A. Merkley (D-Ore.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), Mazie K. Hirono (D-Hawaii), Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Tom Carper (D-Del.), Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Michael F. Bennet (D-Colo.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), and Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), along with Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-Calif.), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.), Gerry Connolly (D-Va.), Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-D.C.), Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Mo.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.), Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.), Carolyn B. Maloney (D-N.Y.), Jerry McNerney (D-Calif.), Grace F. Napolitano (D-Calif.), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.), Bobby L. Rush (D-Ill.), Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.), Darren Soto (D-Fla.), Dina Titus (D-Nev.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), Mark Pocan (D-Wis.), Jamie Raskin (D-Md.), Betty McCollum (D-Minn.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Paul D. Tonko (D-N.Y.), Ed Perlmutter (D-Colo.), Susan A. Davis (D-Calif.), Mike Thompson (D-Calif.), José E. Serrano (D-N.Y.), Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Judy Chu (D-Calif.), A. Donald McEachin (D-Va.), Anna G. Eshoo (D-Calif.), Alcee L. Hastings (D-Fla.), Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), Emanuel Cleaver, II (D-Mo.), Gwen Moore (D-Wis.), John Yarmuth (D-Ky.), Stephen Lynch (D-Mass.), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.), John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Terri Sewell (D-Ala.), Lucille Roybal-Allard (D-Calif.), Jackie Speier (D-Calif.), Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii), Jimmy Gomez (D-Calif.), Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan (D-Northern Marina Islands), Michelle Lujan Grisham (D-N.M.), Ruben J. Kihuen (D-Nev.), Nydia M. Velázquez (D-N.Y.), Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), Grace Meng (D-N.Y.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.), Diana DeGette (D-Colo.), Raul Ruiz, M.D. (D-Calif.), Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas), Henry C. “Hank” Johnson, Jr. (D-Ga.), Tom O'Halleran (D-Ariz.), Thomas R. Suozzi (D-N.Y.), Yvette D. Clarke (D-N.Y.), Karen Bass (D-Calif.), Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-N.J.), Mike Doyle (D-Penn.), Adam Smith (D-Wash.), Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), Mark Desaulnier (D-Calif.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.), Ron Kind (D-Wis.), Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii), Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), Ted W. Lieu (D-Calif.), Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), Donald Norcross (D-N.J.), Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), Donald S. Beyer Jr. (D-Va.), Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), Robert C. "Bobby" Scott (D-Va.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), David E. Price (D-N.C.), Albio Sires (D-N.J.), Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.), Alma S. Adams, Ph.D (D-N.C.), Ted Deutch (D-Fla.), James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), Rosa L. DeLauro (D-Conn.), and Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas).
It is also supported by a wide coalition of Native American Tribes, environmental groups, conservation organizations, businesses, scientific organizations, and outdoor recreation interests.
