ShareTrails | National Monument Challenge Update – Utah Attorney General Looking for Legal Team to Challenge Antiquities Act

On October 21, 2021 the Salt Lake Tribune reports that Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes has issued an RFP to hire a legal team to challenge the Biden expansions of the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments.

According the article:

The wording of the solicitation suggests the state intends to take its case to the Supreme Court.

“This request will continue until the conclusion of litigation, including all appeals, or until a final determination is made by the [Attorney General’s Office] to not pursue litigation further,” the request states.

Utah’s call for legal services requires that “the group of lead counsel and senior attorneys must have experience arguing appeals to the United States Supreme Court and United States Circuit Courts of Appeals” and “must have experience litigating public lands issues and providing legal services to states or state attorneys general.”

This is great news. We have been enlisting the support of the public for these legal challenges with our action alert to encourage Utah Governor Cox to pursue these challenges. We have updated the alert to send a message to Attorney General Reyes as well.

The State of Utah has the strongest legal standing to be challenging these monuments, so it is important that they explore every possible legal avenue after Chief Justice John Roberts signaled he has concerns about abuse of the Antiquities Act. It is often the case that when elected leaders do the right thing, they don’t hear from the public as much as they should.

We invite you to send a quick not to Governor Cox and Attorney General Reyes to let them know you support their efforts to reign in abuse of the Antiquities Act: