Biden has designated two new federal monuments in California
President Joe Biden has announced a large amount of California land as a memorial to Chuckwalla and Sattila National.
A newly released U.S. Department of Justice memo can pave the way for President Donald Trump to roll back millions of acres of federal land and ocean protections. It raises alarms among conservation groups who fear he may be preparing for action.
The 50-page legal opinion provides guidance on ancient law, and concludes that the president has the basis for abolishing two national monuments established earlier this year by California President Joe Biden.
The Justice Department found that the US Attorney General had been incorrect almost a century ago. Trump has proven to have the power to abolish or reduce the size of national monuments established by other presidents.
Conservation groups were called “blatantly politicized” opinions and “trying to rewrite history and long-standing interpretations over a century.” They said it threatens more than 13.5 million acres of national monuments.
The opinion is “a bedrock conservation law that encourages the president’s authority and discretion to unlock national monuments, lay the foundation for the dismantling of ancient laws, and to protect lands of historical, cultural and scientific significance,” the Wilderness Association said.
Since Trump’s 2024 election victory, he has been avidly focused on resolving the “standards” of energy resources exploration and production on public lands.
On inauguration day, the president signed an executive order declaring a national energy emergency. “The integrity and expansion of our country’s energy infrastructure from coast to coast is an immediate and pressing priority for protecting the national and economic security of the United States.”
Asked about his legal opinion, White House spokesman Harrison Fields said in a statement that “federal land and water need to be released into oil, gas, coal, geothermal and mineral leases.”
Clear the path of profits in oil, gas and mining
The executive order previously directed the Home Office to review oil, gas and mining on public lands. In February, Home Secretary Doug Burgham accused staff of having reduced barriers and creating an action plan to provide more land for oil and gas leases.
The Trump administration has asked the president to consider whether Biden could reverse his January actions in which he placed aside the Chuckwalla National Memorial, more than 600,000 acres south of Joshua Tree National Park, and the Satilla Highlands National Memorial, which protected 224,000 acres near the Oregon border.
This opinion is that the ancient law law established by Parliament in 1906 allows the president to change his previous designation and determine that the previous national monument has never been or has not been deemed to be protected by the law. The previous president reduced the area of the monument, but none of them abolished the monument, Reuters reported.
Written in January by Associate Attorney General Lanola Pettitt, appointed by the Texas Attorney General’s Office, the opinion concluded that the 1938 opinion of the U.S. Attorney General’s office was interpreted as limiting its ability to revoke previous designations. When interpreting the original orientation from Congress to limit the designated plot to the smallest area compatible with care and management, she “has the effect of completely eliminating it.”
In his first term, Trump reduced the size of two Utah monuments. He reduced the ears of bears in the southeastern part of the state by 85% and the Grand Staircase in southern Utah – Escalante Monument in half. Biden restored it to both sizes.
Trump has also vowed to remove federally controlled bans on drilling in seawater. At a White House event in April, he announced that he would open more than 400,000 square miles at the Marine National Memorial on the Pacific Island for commercial fishing. Advocacy group Earthjustice filed a lawsuit in May over the decision.
What is ancient law?
Congress passed ancient laws, and President Theodore Roosevelt signed the law in 1906. This was the first US law to grant legal protection to cultural and natural resources.
According to the Congressional Research Office, it allows the President to declare national monuments on federal lands with historical and prehistoric structures or other subjects of historical or scientific interest. Once the site is designated as a national monument, federal permission is required to conduct an archaeological survey or to remove resources from within its boundaries.
How are ancient laws used?
According to a news release from the coalition of conservation groups, 18 presidents (nine Democrats and nine Republicans) have established or expanded more than 160 national monuments. They include some of the country’s most respected monuments, such as the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty. Research Services reported that until the early days of the Biden administration, President George W. Bush declared the most monumental acreage of presidents mostly at marine monuments.
According to a White House statement in January 2025, Biden surpassed Bush’s records by protecting 674 million acres under ancient law.
At least half a dozen presidents are taking action to reduce the size of the national monument, according to an analysis by Boise State professor Monica Hubbard and Oregon State professor Erica Allen Walters.
Why is ancient law controversial?
US states and Congress have previously argued that they would revoke or limit the limits of presidential powers under ancient law.
Opponents say it can contradict other federal laws that give the federal government too much control with hundreds of thousands of acres of land and resources within sea ranges, and sometimes require more citizen involvement. President Donald Trump cites “burden and ideologically motivated regulations” that limit the country’s use of natural resources.
The Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 blueprint said it allowed emergency measures long before the law was written to protect special federal lands, rivers and endangered species species, calling for the law to be repealed. The foundation argued that Democratic presidents, including Biden, and the Home Office, had abused the law in a “outrageous, unilateral withdrawal from public use” to “averageous withdrawal from public use” to advance the “radical climate agenda” to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, on the surface.
Supporters say it will allow the president to move quickly to protect vulnerable land and water, and it has broad public support due to the benefits of designating the site as a monument.
What is at risk if Trump acts on a memo?
Conservation groups say that when Trump attempts to reduce or remove national monuments, the beautiful landscape, protected Native American locations and resources, protected species and millions of acres of federal land with its habitat is at risk. In early June, a coalition of beautiful things for all Americans and supporters of the National Monument held a rally to honor and preserve the national monument. It was June 8th No. 119 An anniversary of ancient law.
In February, the National Park Conservation Association identified at least 13 national monuments that risk losing protections, including Devils Tower in Wyoming, which was founded by Roosevelt in 1906. Trump, designated by President Barack Obama in 2016, reduced its size in December 2017, and Biden later recovered it.
The Wilderness Association says Trump’s executive order aimed at promoting mineral extraction and processing was intended to promote permissions, dangerous monuments and “iconic landscapes” across the country.
contribution: Reuters; Ev Chen, USA Today; USA Today Network, Janet Wilson
USA Today’s national correspondent, Dinah Voyles Pulver, writes about climate change, violent weather and other news. Contact her at dpulver @usatoday.com or @dinahvp.
