ShareTrails | RELEASE: BlueRibbon Coalition Files Motion for Summary Judgment in Case Challenging President Biden’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Designations

SALT LAKE CITY – Last week, the BlueRibbon Coalition (BRC), filed a motion for summary judgment in its challenge to President Biden’s unlawful proclamations expanding the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments. This lawsuit—which has been consolidated with a similar one by the State of Utah—contends that President Biden’s proclamations exceed his authority under the Antiquities Act.

“After reading the government’s response to our complaint, it is clear that they cannot identify any discernible limit to their theory of the President’s powers under the Antiquities Act,” BRC Executive Director, Ben Burr said. “But the Act includes careful limitations that the President is supposed to respect. By contrast, here, President Biden has sought to raze those limits in service of his own agenda.”

BRC’s motion for summary judgment clearly articulates how President Biden’s proclamations are both unprecedented and unlawful. The motion makes clear too that if the government’s theory of the Antiquities Act is allowed to stand, then the President’s powers under that Act would become effectively limitless, contrary to both Congress’s intent and the Constitution’s separation of powers.

BRC is looking forward to pressing these arguments before the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah.