A newly published U.S. Justice Department memo could open a path for President Donald Trump to roll back protections for millions of acres of federal lands and oceans. It has raised alarms among conservation organizations that fear it signals he may be preparing for action.
The 50-page legal opinion provides guidance on the Antiquities Act, concluding the president has grounds to abolish two national monuments established earlier this year by President Joe Biden in California.
More: Biden to create two new national monuments in California
The Justice Department determined an opinion from the U.S. Attorney General nearly a century ago was incorrect. It found Trump has the power to abolish or reduce the size of national monuments established by other presidents.
Conservation organizations called the opinion “blatantly politicized” and an attempt to “rewrite over a century of history and long-standing interpretation.” They said it threatens more than 13.5 million acres of national monuments.
The opinion “lays the groundwork for unravelling national monuments and dismantling the Antiquities Act, a bedrock conservation law that grants presidents authority and discretion to protect lands with historical, cultural and scientific significance,” stated the Wilderness Society.
Since Trump’s 2024 election victory, he has been intently focused on clearing “obstacles” to the exploration and production of energy resources on public lands.
On Inauguration Day, the president signed an executive order declaring a national energy emergency. “The integrity and expansion of our Nation’s energy infrastructure – from coast to coast – is an immediate and pressing priority for the protection of the United States’ national and economic security,” it stated.
Asked about the legal opinion, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields cited, in a statement, the need to “liberate our federal lands and waters to oil, gas, coal, geothermal, and mineral leasing,” Reuters reported.
Clears the way for oil, gas, mining interests
By executive order, Trump previously directed the Department of the Interior to review oil, gas and mining on public land. In February, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum charged his staff with coming up with an action plan to reduce barriers and offer more land for oil and gas leasing.
The Trump administration asked the department to weigh in on whether the president could reverse Biden’s January actions, which set aside the Chuckwalla National Monument, more than 600,000 acres south of Joshua Tree National Park, and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument, which protected 224,000 acres near the Oregon border.
The opinion concludes the Antiquities Act, established by Congress in 1906, allows the president to alter previous designations and decide that earlier national monuments, “either never were or no longer are deserving of the Act’s protections.” Previous presidents have diminished the acreage of monuments, but no president has ever abolished a monument, Reuters reported.
Written by Lanora Pettit, a deputy assistant attorney general appointed from the Texas Attorney General’s office in January, the opinion concluded that a 1938 U.S. Attorney General’s office opinion that has been interpreted as restricting the ability of presidents to undo previous designations was wrong. Interpreting the original direction from Congress to keep the designated parcels confined to the smallest area compatible for care and management, she wrote, could “have the effect of eliminating entirely” parcels previously associated with national monuments.
Trump, in his first term, reduced the size of two Utah monuments. He reduced Bears Ears in the southeastern part of the state by 85% and the Grand Staircase-Escalante monument in south-central Utah by half. Biden restored both to their former size.
Trump also vowed to remove a ban on drilling in federally managed ocean waters. At a White House event in April, he announced he would open more than 400,000 square miles in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument to commercial fishing. The advocacy group Earthjustice filed suit over that decision in May.
What is the Antiquities Act?
Congress passed the Antiquities Act and President Theodore Roosevelt signed it into law in 1906. It was the first U.S. law to give legal protection to cultural and natural resources, addressing concerns at the time about the pillaging of native archaeological sites.
It authorizes the president to proclaim national monuments on federal lands that have historic and prehistoric structures or other objects of historic or scientific interest, according to the Congressional Research Office. Once a site has been designated a national monument, federal permission is required to conduct archaeological investigations or remove resources from within its boundaries.
How has the Antiquities Act been used?
Eighteen presidents – nine Democrats and nine Republicans – have established or expanded more than 160 national monuments, according to a news release by a coalition of conservation groups. They include some of the nation’s most revered monuments, such as the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty. The research service reported that until the early days of the Biden administration, President George W. Bush had proclaimed the most monument acreage of any president, mostly in ocean monuments.
According to a White House statement in January 2025, Biden surpassed Bush’s record by protecting 674 million acres with the Antiquities Act.
At least a half dozen presidents have taken actions to reduce the size of national monuments, according to an analysis by Monica Hubbard, a professor at Boise State University, and Erika Allen Wolters, an assistant professor at Oregon State University.
Why is the Antiquities Act controversial?
U.S. states and Congress have previously argued to revoke or restrict the limits of the president’s powers under the Antiquities Act, saying it was intended to be narrow in scope.
Opponents say it gives the federal government too much control over the resources within hundreds of thousands of acres of land and ocean and is sometimes inconsistent with other federal laws that require more public involvement. President Donald Trump has cited “burdensome and ideologically motivated regulations” that limit the use of the nation’s natural resources.
The Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025” blueprint called for the act to be repealed, saying it permitted emergency actions long before laws were created to protect special federal lands, rivers and endangered species. The foundation argued that Democratic presidents, including Biden, and the Department of Interior have abused the act with “outrageous, unilateral withdrawals from public use” to advance a “radical climate agenda, ostensibly to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”
Proponents say it allows presidents to move swiftly to protect vulnerable lands and waters, and it has broad public support due to the benefits of designating a site a monument.
What’s at stake if Trump acts on the memo?
Conservation groups say millions of acres of federal lands with beautiful landscapes, protected Native American locations and resources, protected species and their habitats are at risk if Trump tries to shrink or remove national monuments. In early June, America the Beautiful for All and a coalition of national monuments supporters held rallies to honor and preserve the nation’s monuments. June 8 was the 119th anniversary of the Antiquities Act.
The National Parks Conservation Association in February identified at least 13 national monuments that could be at risk of losing protection, including the nation’s first, Devils Tower in Wyoming, established by Roosevelt in 1906. The association lists national monuments in six states, including Bears Ears in Utah. Designated by President Barack Obama in 2016, Trump reduced its size in December 2017, then Biden restored it.
The Wilderness Society has said a Trump executive order aimed at boosting the mining and processing of minerals, and expedited permitting, endangers monuments and “iconic landscapes” across the country.
Contributing: Reuters; Eve Chen, USA TODAY; Janet Wilson, USA TODAY Network
Dinah Voyles Pulver, a national correspondent for USA TODAY, writes about climate change, violent weather and other news. Reach her at dpulver@usatoday.com or @dinahvp on Bluesky or X or dinahvp.77 on Signal.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump gets OK to shrink or abolish some national monuments
