OPINION/COMMENTARY

CLINTON’S 1.7 MILLION ACRE MONUMENT AT COURT OF APPEALS

President Clinton’s 1996 creation of a 1.7-million-acre national monument in southern Utah is unconstitutional, illegal, and must be set aside, a public interest law firm argued today in its opening brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. The brief urges the appellate court to reverse a decision by a Utah federal district court last April in which the court ruled it had no authority to determine if Clinton’s decree violated the Antiquities Act. Mountain States Legal Foundation, which first challenged the decree in October 1996, argues that the Escalante-Grand Staircase National Monument in southern Utah violates the U.S. Constitution, which assigns power over federal lands to Congress and other federal laws. “Every school child knows of the system of check and balances put in place by the nation’s Founding Fathers, under which federal courts provide a check on the unbridled power of the President and Congress,” said William Perry Pendley of Mountain States Legal Foundation. Courts often declare acts of Congress to be unconstitutional and courts, as well, have held that presidents exceeded the authority granted them by Congress. The people of Utah, especially southern Utah, deserve an answer to the question: did Clinton exceed his authority when he declared the Utah monument?”....