PHOENIX, AZ – BlueRibbon Coalition announced this week that it opposes yet another unlawful land grab of nearly 1 million acres through the creation of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument. During
President Biden's visit to western states this last week, he abused the powers authorized by the Antiquities Act to designate a new national monument in northern Arizona.
“This designation will weaken the American economy, it will weaken America geopolitically, and it will lock the American people out of their public lands,” BlueRibbon Coalition Executive Director, Ben Burr said. “Without
relief from the federal courts, and hopefully the Supreme Court, it is clear that presidents will continue to abuse the Antiquities Act, which is currently abused with no discernible limit to the powers it allegedly delegates to presidents.”
Last August, BlueRibbon Coalition filed a legal challenge to the expansions of two national monuments in the state of Utah. We are currently exploring our legal options to challenge this new monument in Arizona. These
designations are locking Americans out of millions of acres of public land, and we are the only organization that represents recreation users that is aggressively challenging the abuse of the Antiquities Act.
The only one.
But fortunately we're not alone. Our legal team From Jones Day in Washington D.C. consists of constitutional law experts who specialize in winning Supreme Court cases.
In response to President Biden's land grab this week, the
Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal had this to say, "There is currently no limit to a President’s power under the Antiquities Act to remove land from development and public use. Environmental groups even argue that Presidents can’t roll back predecessors’
designation. This interpretation of one-way executive power is more sweeping than the Grand Canyon and is crying out for a legal challenge."
Of course we're only in this fight because of the support of our members. Scroll to the end of this email and you will see several new clubs and organizations who joined BRC this week. We are honored that the UT/AZ ATV
Club and Trail Hero added their voice to our legal challenge to the Utah monument expansions.
If you're offended by the arrogance of a president who would abuse his power to lock us out of 1 million acres of our public land, and then make a beeline to meet with deep-pocketed environmentalist donors in Park City, Utah to collect the
checks at an event where donors we're committing $100,000 per head, then please support us in our historic fight.