President Trump can abolish national monuments that were protected from energy development and other activities by past presidents, the Justice Department (DOJ) has determined.
The department issued a legal opinion this week that Trump can shrink or eliminate national monuments, overturning a 1938 opinion saying presidents did not have the power to abolish them.
“The Antiquities Act of 1906 permits a President to alter a prior declaration of a national monument, including by finding that the ‘landmarks,’ ‘structures,” or ‘objects’ identified in the prior declaration either never were or no longer are deserving of the Act’s Protections,” the new DOJ opinion states.
While this opinion does not in itself overturn any national monument boundaries, it sets the stage for doing so in the future.
The document specifically names two national monuments set aside by the Biden administration, the Chuckwalla National Monument and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument.
These monuments, located in California, encompass a combined 848,000 acres of particular significance to Native American tribes in the region.
The White House told The Washington Post that it planned to eliminate them after saying in a later-scrubbed fact sheet that it was “terminating proclamations declaring nearly a million acres constitute new national monuments that lock up vast amounts of land.”
President Trump has, in the past, sought to shrink monuments designated by past presidents, including Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments.
The legal opinion issued Tuesday said the prior 1938 opinion, named for monument Castle Pinckney, made reducing the size of those monuments more complicated.
“The ongoing existence of Castle Pinckney has needlessly complicated litigation challenging the President’s authority to alter the declarations of his predecessors,” it stated. “Following President Trump’s 2017 decision to substantially reduce but not eliminate the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments, the parties spent considerable resources litigating whether those actions should be considered revocations … in no small part because Castle Pinckney opined that reduction but not elimination of a parcel was permissible.”
Environmental advocates criticized the new opinion.
“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. This opinion is just that, an opinion. It does not mean presidents can legally shrink or eliminate monuments at will,” Jennifer Rokala, executive director of The Center for Western Priorities, said in a written statement.
“Once again the Trump administration finds itself on the wrong side of history and at odds with Western voters,” she added.
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