Supreme Court Rejects Utah Land Lawsuit

Photo: Pedro Szekely/Flickr

In a win for anyone who hunts, fishes, or recreates on public land in the West, the Supreme Court on Monday rejected a lawsuit from the state of Utah that sought to give Utah control over 18.5 million acres of federal land within its borders.

Utah has a long history of privatizing public land and prioritizing real estate development at the expense of rank-and-file citizens. Late last year, we reported on this lawsuit. Utah wanted control of all 18.5 million acres of “unappropriated land,” or land administered by the Bureau of Land Management that currently has no designated purpose. The lawsuit was not seeking control of national forests, parks, monuments, or wilderness areas.

The crux of the argument was this: “Nothing in the Constitution authorizes the United States to hold vast unreserved swathes of Utah’s territory in perpetuity, over Utah’s express objection, without even so much as a pretense of using those lands in the service of any enumerated power.”

Despite a conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court, the justices rejected the lawsuit, which was filed directly with the highest court in the land, instead of in lower courts first, as is the usual process.

The Supreme Court had no official statement on the case, but the Solicitor General did say that “Utah’s suit was untimely, noting it was suing 176 years after the United States first acquired the lands at issue and 48 years after Congress passed the Federal Land Policy and Management Act.”

You can read more about the rejection of the lawsuit here.