The Texas Public Policy Foundation filed a lawsuit against the Interior Department to undo the Chuckwalla National Monument, a broad swath of southern California desert protected by President Joe Biden during his final days in office.
The organization argued in a filing in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan that Biden overstepped his authority when using the 1906 Antiquities to designate the monument, echoing an argument that Trump administration officials have also raised.
“Presidents will keep abusing the Antiquities Act until the courts stop them,” Matt Miller, a senior attorney for the foundation, said in a statement. “Congress intended national monument designations to be used to protect discrete sites and objects — like a particular cliff dwelling or ruin. Presidents Clinton, Obama and now, Biden, have instead used the Act to close millions of acres of public land at the stroke of a pen.”
The group argues the California monument impedes the creation of new roads, amateur mining and in some cases recreation. It is representing Dan Torongo, whose family has used the Small Miners Act of 1872 to claim mineral rights in the Chuckwalla mountains dating to 1981, as well as the BlueRibbon Coalition, a group that advocates for motorized vehicle access to public lands.
