Arizona governor looks to dismiss lawsuit over national monument

By Jennifer Yachnin | 06/12/2024 01:15 PM EDT

Gov. Katie Hobbs says GOP legislators overstepped their authority by challenging the monument in northern Arizona.

President Joe Biden signing monument proclamation.

President Joe Biden signs a proclamation designating the Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument at the Red Butte Airfield on Aug. 8, 2023, in Tusayan, Arizona. John Locher/AP

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs will ask a federal court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by Republican legislators targeting a sprawling national monument that surrounds the Grand Canyon National Park.

In a motion filed Monday, Hobbs and state Attorney General Kristin Mayes — both Democrats — asked the U.S. District Court for the District of Arizona to allow them to intervene in the lawsuit challenging President Joe Biden’s establishment last year of the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument.

“Put simply, neither the State, the Governor, nor the State Land Department believes that designation of the Ancestral Footprints Monument injures Arizona,” Mayes wrote in the motion.

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Republican leaders of the Arizona Legislature, state Treasurer Kimberly Yee and a trio of local governments filed the lawsuit earlier this year, claiming that Biden exceeded his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allows presidents to set aside federal land to protect areas of cultural, historic or scientific interest.

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