US Justice Department: Trump has authority to revoke protective national monuments
President Donald Trump’s administration, through its lawyers, asserts that he possesses the authority to eliminate national monuments established to safeguard historical and archaeological sites spread across vast landscapes, including two in California established by his predecessor upon the request of Native American tribes. This stance was communicated in a legal opinion released by the Justice Department on Tuesday, refuting a 1938 ruling that prohibited the revocation of monuments created by former presidents under the Antiquities Act. According to the department, presidents retain the power to nullify monument designations if the protections are deemed unnecessary.
The Interior Department, under Trump’s leadership, is exploring alterations to monuments nationwide as part of the administration’s efforts to bolster U.S. energy production. Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the leading Democrat on the Senate Natural Resources Committee, highlighted that the President’s directives are facilitating the potential eradication of national monuments. During his initial term, Trump scaled back the dimensions of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah, characterizing them as an excessive land seizure. Additionally, he revoked fishing restrictions within an extensive marine monument off the New England Coast. Former President Joe Biden overturned these actions and reinstated the monuments.
The Justice Department’s recent legal opinion spotlighted Chuckwalla National Monument in Southern California, proximate to Joshua Tree National Park, and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, situated in Northern California. These two monuments were designated by Biden prior to his departure from office, shielding them from oil and natural gas extraction activities. Chuckwalla boasts impressive natural phenomena like the Painted Canyon of Mecca Hills and elusive flora and fauna such as desert bighorn sheep and Chuckwalla lizards. On the other hand, the Sáttítla Highlands encompass the ancestral territories of the Pit River Tribe and Modoc Peoples.
Throughout history, the majority of presidents have utilized the Antiquities Act of 1906 to safeguard exceptional landscapes and cultural assets. Nearly half of the national parks in the United States originated as monuments. However, critics of monument designations under the administrations of Biden and Obama contend that the protective boundaries were overly expansive, impeding critical mineral mining. Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit, in the legal opinion formulated during Trump’s tenure, suggested that Biden’s safeguards for Chuckwalla and the Sáttítla Highlands were part of his endeavor to forge an environmental legacy, granting more recreational opportunities like hiking, biking, camping, and hunting.
Trump’s decision to lift commercial fishing restrictions within a sizable marine monument in the Pacific Ocean established by Obama met with opposition from environmental organizations. According to Tuesday’s Justice Department pronouncement, Trump lacks the authority to arbitrarily diminish monuments. Axie Navas of The Wilderness Society emphasized that the majority of Americans favor the preservation of public lands and oppose their dismantling or destruction.
President Biden sanctioned the establishment of ten new monuments, including the site of a 1908 race riot in Springfield, Illinois, and a sacred Native American site near the Grand Canyon. Since 1912, more than a dozen presidential proclamations have diminished monuments, as documented by the National Park Service. President Theodore Roosevelt signed the Antiquities Act into law following petitions from educators and scientists seeking to shield sites from looting and unauthorized collecting. This legislation represented the initial provision in the U.S. to safeguard cultural and natural resources of historic or scientific importance on federal lands.