The president can undo national monuments, according to a new opinion from the Department of Justice, while environmentalists say the move could endanger protected land across the country, including Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments in Utah.
The opinion, released by the Department of Justice Tuesday, goes against a 1938 opinion from then-Attorney General Homer Cummings, who served under President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The Trump administration’s lawyers wrote that Cummings’ opinion “has long been cited as a reason for treating the declaration of a monument under the Antiquities Act as irrevocable.”
The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes presidents to designate national monuments, which protect “objects of historic or scientific interest.” President Bill Clinton used that authority to create Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996, as did President Barack Obama when he established Bears Ears National Monument in 2016.
Asked whether the president can disavow that 1938 opinion, the Trump administration attorneys wrote: “We think that the President can, and we should.”
The opinion specifically addressed two monuments in California — Chuckwalla National Monument and Sáttítla Highlands National Monument — originally designated by former President Joe Biden at the request of Native American tribes and lawmakers.
It could also have major implications for two monuments in Utah, which have been the subject of significant jostling during the last two administrations. Trump reduced the size of the monuments during his first term and Biden restored them during his time in office.
“It should come as no surprise that President Trump’s Justice Department came up with the answer that he was looking for,” Steve Bloch, legal director for the nonprofit Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said in a statement Tuesday.
“These monuments represent the crown jewels of our nation’s public lands and contain unique plant and animal species, cultural resources, and scientific wonders found nowhere else on Earth,” he continued. “We’re confident in our ability to defeat any attempt to undo protections for these remarkable places.”
Bloch also pointed to a December 2024 poll that found that 71% of Utah voters from all political parties supported keeping Bears Ears as a national monument, and 74% supported the same protections for Grand Staircase-Escalante.
“Moreover,” the pollsters wrote, “67 percent of voters say the 2021 decision to restore national monument protections to Grand-Staircase Escalante and Bears Ears was more of a good thing than a bad thing.”
Jen Rokala, executive director for the environmental nonprofit Center for Western Priorities, said in a Tuesday statement that the decision does not have legal backing.
“The Trump administration can come to whatever conclusion it likes, but the courts have upheld monuments established under the Antiquities Act for over a century,” she said. “This opinion is just that, an opinion. It does not mean presidents can legally shrink or eliminate monuments at will.”
Utah is home to eight national monuments. Four of them — Bears Ears, Hovenweep, Rainbow Bridge and Natural Bridges — are in San Juan County. Grand Staircase-Escalante spans both Kane and Garfield counties, Cedar Breaks sits in Iron County, Timpanogos Cave in Utah County and Dinosaur in Uintah.
Asked to comment on the DOJ opinion, a spokesperson for Sen. Mike Lee pointed to comments Lee made during the Energy and Natural Resources committee hearing Wednesday morning.
“I want to commend the recent opinion by the DOJ’s Office of Legal Counsel, which affirms what many of us have long argued: the president has the legal authority to reconsider monument designations that are over-broad, duplicative, or disconnected from the statute’s purpose,” Lee said in the meeting.
Utah leaders have long opposed the use of the Antiquities Act, arguing that sweeping land protections should have to earn approval by Congress, not just the president.
Lee said Wednesday that the earlier interpretation of the Antiquities Act was “flawed” and has “allowed presidents to unilaterally lock up millions of acres of land, but denied future presidents the authority to undo or revise those designations.”
“With this new legal clarity,” Lee continued, “we hope the Department of the Interior will work with us to ensure that public lands are managed in a way that reflects the needs of those who live closest to them.”
Sen. John Curtis and Reps. Blake Moore, Celeste Maloy, Mike Kennedy and Burgess Owens did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the DOJ opinion and how they expect it could affect monuments in Utah, but the state’s congressional delegation has long opposed the monuments
Curtis, Utah’s junior U.S. senator, said in April that he has not “been opposed” to Trump’s desire to downsize Bears Ears in particular — which lies in the congressional district he formerly represented — but that he would prefer a legislative approach.
Maloy, who represents the district where Grand Staircase-Escalante is located, has introduced a bill that would strip the president of the ability to designate national monuments at all and instead leave that ability to Congress.
The state of Utah in 2023 sued to undo Biden’s restoration of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, specifically challenging the Antiquities Act. The case remains in the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals.
The DOJ opinion follows an April report that Trump’s Interior Department was considering reducing the two Utah monuments to expand energy and mineral development. And in February, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum quietly ordered a review of “withdrawn public lands,” including national monuments designated under the Antiquities Act.
Correction, 4 p.m. • This story has corrected the congressional district where Grand Staircase-Escalante is located.
