Environews

EnviroNews: Update: Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante

By Amy Brunvand

Lawsuits are moving forward to restore two Utah national monuments downsized by President Trump in 2017.

Last October, the Trump administration tried and failed to dismiss the lawsuits without a trial.

In January 2020, The Tribal and Environmental groups defending Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments issued memoranda asking for a “partial summary judgment” to affirm that it was illegal for Trump to slash the monuments. The Bears Ears memorandum says that Trump “acted well beyond the law and well beyond the constitutional limits of his power.”

The memorandum for Grand Staircase Escalante asks the court to “declare that the Revised Plans are invalid attempts to implement the 2017 Proclamation, which was promulgated without authority.”

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This is an excerpt from our February EnviroNews column. View the full article here.

This article was originally published on February 3, 2020.