Arizona Senate President Warren Petersen and Arizona House Speaker Ben Toma have filed an amicus brief in support of a lawsuit in Utah against President Biden. They filed it in the Tenth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals on Monday, Nov. 6.
The lawsuit from Utah challenges Biden's use of the Antiquities Act to restore entire landscapes and sought to reduce two southern Utah monuments by over 2 million acres, according to the filed complaint. The State of Utah and Garfield and Kane Counties filed it on Aug. 25, 2022 against Biden and other leaders of federal land management agencies.
The Antiquities Act of 1906, as presented by the case, grants the President the power to designate monuments for historic landmarks, structures, and objects of historical or scientific interest on federal land. It also obliges the President to set aside federal lands as monuments while ensuring protection for these objects within the "smallest area compatible".
According to the lawsuit, President Biden designated over three million acres of Utah as two national monuments that comprise more than 5% of the State. The case claims he did so with an unprecedented rationale that entire landscapes—Grand Staircase-Escalante (1.87 million acres) and Bears Ears (1.36 million acres)—are "objects" under this Act.
In addition to this, a statement from the White House states that Biden’s land designation is taking place in northern Arizona where he allocated nearly 1 million acres as Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni – Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in August.
Formed from land previously overseen by Bureau of Land Management and U.S Forest Service, this monument holds deep significance for numerous Indigenous tribes that have resided in the wider Grand Canyon region for over a thousand years according to Salt Lake Tribune.
In Sept., Petersen denounced Biden’s designation of the monument as a "dictator-style land grab", said the press release from Arizona Senate Republicans website. He promised a legal battle would ensue and mentioned that "Using the guise of creating a ‘Grand Canyon’ national monument in a remote area that is not even connected to the Grand Canyon is completely disingenuous," said Petersen. "This move has nothing to do with protecting the Grand Canyon. It has everything to do with fulfilling his tyrannic desires to block responsible mining and agriculture production in an effort [to] cater to the extremists who elected him into office. I look forward to fighting on behalf of Arizona in court."
Within their amicus brief supporting Utah's lawsuit, Petersen and Toma criticize the Antiquities Act, equating Biden's use of this law with historic mandates in medieval England that designated extensive forest areas for exclusive royal purposes.
