Whether judges can weigh the president’s right to set aside millions of acres of federal land as a national monument will be the central issue in Thursday’s oral arguments before an appeals court panel in Colorado. The US Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit will hear oral arguments in Garfield County v. Biden, a case where the county and the state of Utah claim that President Joe Biden’s re-establishment of the original boundaries of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments violates the 1906 Antiquities Act. The litigation challenges the legality of the president’s use of executive power under the Act, questioning whether such wide-ranging land designations are within presidential authority or should be subject to judicial review.
Presiding over the case, a panel consisting of two Biden appointees and a Trump appointee could potentially seek a “test” for which national monument designations are reviewable by the courts. This scrutiny could set a precedent impacting the executive branch’s conservation efforts and the scope of the Antiquities Act. For detailed coverage on the developing story, visit Bloomberg Law.