facebook-pixel

Presidential ‘superpower’: the federal Antiquities Act and its use in carving out national monuments

Q&A with Theodore Roosevelt biographer David Gessner.

(Francisco Kjolseth | The Salt Lake Tribune) While Utah's Republican leaders are united in opposing President Joe Biden using the Antiquities Act to once again expand the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments, residents are deeply divided over the expected action. The polarization follows a pattern that has played out many times in history as presidents use the "superpower" of designating monuments under the 1906 Antiquities Act.