Outdoor retailer Patagonia, alongside various environmental and tribal groups, filed lawsuits in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday, Sept. 2, challenging President Donald Trump's decision to significantly shrink the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments. The legal filings seek to reactivate previous cases and contest both the president's 2017 and 2026 proclamations regarding the monument boundaries.
Legal Coalitions Challenge Reductions
The lawsuits involve a coalition of organizations, including Patagonia, tribal-led groups Utah Diné Bikéyah and A’Nuche, and several conservation groups. Additionally, a group of 10 environmental organizations—including the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources Defense Council, and the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance—filed supplemental complaints regarding both the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments.
According to Moab Times, the new complaints aim to reactivate legal challenges that were administratively closed after former President Joe Biden restored and expanded the monument boundaries in 2021. The plaintiffs are seeking to have the monuments restored to their full size and to void any mining claims or mineral leases resulting from the president's proclamations.
Disputes Over Presidential Authority
The litigation follows a July 13 decision by President Trump to reduce the monuments by approximately 90%. In his first term, Trump reduced Bears Ears from roughly 1.35 million acres to about 228,000 acres, and Grand Staircase-Escalante from approximately 1.87 million acres to roughly 1 million acres. The July cuts reduced Bears Ears to about 121,000 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante to approximately 182,000 acres.
Plaintiffs argue that the Antiquities Act allows a president to designate national monuments but does not grant the authority to abolish them in whole or in part. Christy Goldfuss, executive director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, stated that while presidents can create monuments, Congress never gave them the power to tear them down.
Concerns Over Resource Extraction
The new court filings claim that the presidential orders leave the landscapes vulnerable to oil, gas, coal, and hard rock mining. As Utah News Dispatch reported, mining claims have been filed in recent weeks on lands that were cut from the new boundaries.
In a statement, Steve Bloch, legal director at the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, called the reductions an unlawful attack on the landscapes and stated the organization intends to ensure the president does not have the final word over the fate of the monuments.
Impact on Tribal Sovereignty
The president's order regarding Bears Ears has also dissolved the Bears Ears Commission, a body that managed the monument through a co-management structure involving the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Zuni Tribe, and the Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation.
Patagonia CEO Ryan Gellert characterized the dismantling of the commission as a betrayal of tribal sovereignty that discards years of effort to establish the first tribal co-management structure for a national monument in U.S. history.
White House and Legal Context
The White House has defended the actions, with spokeswoman Taylor Rodgers stating that the Obama and Biden administrations abused the Antiquities Act to lock up millions of acres of Utah public lands. Rodgers noted that the president rightsized the Bears Ears National Monument to allow for common sense land use.
While the U.S. Department of Justice issued a legal opinion last year suggesting a president can eliminate land from a national monument if it is no longer deserving of protection, conservationists point to the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, which they say requires congressional review for cuts exceeding 5,000 acres.
Historical Context of Designations
The legal battle over the Utah monuments marks a continuation of a decade-long dispute. The Bears Ears National Monument was originally established in 2016 by President Barack Obama at the urging of Native American tribes, while Grand Staircase-Escalante was designated by President Bill Clinton in 1996.
