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The Justice Department says President Donald Trump has the right to abolish national monuments established by former President Joe Biden at the request of Native American tribes.
In the final days of his presidency, Biden established the Chuckwalla National Monument and the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument to protect hundreds of thousands of acres of land in California. According to Reuters, the Chuckwalla National Monument protects over 624,000 acres, while the Sáttítla Highlands National Monument protects 224,000 acres.
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The monuments could lose their status after a Trump DOJ legal opinion reversed a 1938 determination that presidents did not have the power to abolish monuments designated by previous presidents under the Antiquities Act of 1906.
Deputy Assistant Attorney General Lanora Pettit argued in the opinion that “for the Antiquities Act, the power to declare carries with it the power to revoke.”
In his first term, Trump reduced the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante National Monuments in Utah, according to the Associated Press. The outlet noted that Trump claimed the monuments were a “massive land grab.” However, Biden later restored them during his term in office.
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The DOJ’s opinion, which was released on Tuesday, has already drawn backlash as Sen. Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., slammed the Trump administration.
“At Donald Trump’s order, his Justice Department is attempting to clear a path to erase national monuments,” said Heinrich, who serves as the ranking member of the Senate Natural Resources Committee. “Here’s what they don’t understand: Our national monuments are about who we are. They tell the story of our ancestors, support jobs and our rural economies, and connect Americans to our history and the land itself. No president can erase that.”
Heinrich also vowed to oppose Republican efforts “to rip away our national monuments.”
In the legal opinion, Pettit wrote that Biden’s designation of the new monuments was part of a larger effort to create an environmental legacy for himself. She also appeared to discredit Biden’s reasons for designating the sites as national monuments, including the creation of more places for outdoor recreational activities, like biking, hiking, hunting and camping.
“Such activities are entirely expected in a park, but they are wholly unrelated to (if not outright incompatible with) the protection of scientific or historical monuments,” Pettit wrote.
There is no clear indication if or when Trump would revoke the status of the two sites established by Biden—or the status of any other monuments. However, according to Reuters, White House spokesperson Harrison Fields spoke about the need to “liberate our federal lands and waters to oil, gas, coal, geothermal, and mineral leasing” when asked about the opinion.
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