Utah sues federal government over public lands

The state of Utah filed a “historic” lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court whether the federal government has the constitutional authority to maintain unappropriated public lands within the state against the state’s wishes.
Utah Gov. Spencer Cox, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, state Senate President J. Stuart Adams and House Speaker Mike Schultz announced the lawsuit on Tuesday in a packed state Capitol Gold Room, filled with state lawmakers, county officials and other Republican leaders.
“We are committed to ensuring that Utahns of all ages and abilities have access to public lands,” Cox said in a press release. “The BLM has increasingly failed to keep these lands accessible and appears to be pursuing a course of active closure and restriction. It is time for all Utahns to stand for our land.”
The lawsuit question’s the federal government’s indefinite control of 18.5 million acres of unappropriated public lands in Utah. This does not include the 18.8 million acres of federal and tribal lands that include national parks, national monuments, national forests and national wilderness areas. Nearly 70% of Utah is public land managed by federal agencies.
Utah has hired former U.S. solicitor general Paul Clement and leading Supreme Court advocate Erin Murphy to argue the case.
“Nothing in the text of the Constitution authorizes such an inequitable practice. In fact, the Framers of the Constitution carefully limited federal power to hold land within states,” Reyes said in the press release. “Current federal land policy violates state sovereignty and offends the original and most fundamental notions of federalism.”