"We're very close to making a final decision, that's all I can say at this point," said Mark Lopez, the ACLU national staff attorney who also argued the group's challenge of Salt Lake City's 1999 sale of one block of Main Street to the LDS Church. The church imposed behavior restrictions on the public easement that were later ruled to violate free speech protections.
Similar constitutionality questions have been raised by opponents of the 25-year BLM lease signed by church officials last year, giving them management control of 933 acres of public land, including the site believed to be the scene of an 1856 pioneer handcart disaster, for payments of $16,000 annually.
Although ACLU officials declined to discuss litigation issues before any complaint is filed, Wyoming residents who asked to be considered as plaintiffs said any lawsuit would name the BLM and Department of Interior as defendants, not the LDS Church. Among those who claim they have been harmed by leasing the nationally recognized historic site to a religious organization are descendants of LDS pioneers, recreationists and historians.
The BLM conducted an environmental assessment prior to signing the lease and found no adverse effects on the land or the public from church management.
But organizations such as the Alliance for Historic Wyoming and Americans United for Separation of Church and State have criticized several provisions in the lease. The pact states that church officials may establish visitation guidelines on the publicly owned land "with respect to such issues as firearms, alcoholic beverages, controlled substances, smoking, public health and safety, the respectful and peaceful use of the leased land, and conduct consistent with the historic nature of the resource."
In an administrative appeal filed in November, the alliance claimed the BLM undervalued the historic tourism site by classifying it as undeveloped grazing land. It also charged that giving the LDS Church preferential rights to buy the land in the future constitutes an illegal sale of public property without congressional approval.
Considered sacred ground to Mormon faithful, many scholars say Martin's Cove is the primary campsite where companies of European converts tugging handcarts across the high plains hunkered down in an October blizzard. About 200 people perished from starvation and exposure before rescue teams from Salt Lake City arrived.
The LDS Church bought a private ranch adjacent to the handcart site and has operated a visitors center that attracts an estimated 35,000 people annually. The church originally sought to purchase Martin's Cove outright under legislation introduced by then-Utah Congressman Jim Hansen. But after Wyoming's congressional delega- tion balked, Congress ordered the BLM to negotiate a long-term lease with the church.
