Utah sues federal government for control of public lands

The state of Utah on Tuesday sued the federal government in an attempt to gain control of millions of acres of public lands.

The state is seeking a transfer of 18.5 million acres — about a third of the state’s total area — from the federal government. 

“Utah deserves priority when it comes to managing its land,” Gov. Spencer Cox (R) said during a press conference. 

“It's been a tragedy to see what this administration and past administrations have done to our land, closing down roads that have been open for generations. Places where people went to recreate, to spend time with their families, are no longer accessible,” he added.

The lawsuit, which goes directly to the Supreme Court, argues that the federal government’s control over the land is unconstitutional.

About 70 percent of Utah’s total land area is under federal control. When Utah became a state, under the “Utah Enabling Act” it gave up land to the federal government. It’s not the only state to do so, and the federal government owns about 47 percent of land in the West. 

Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, which advocates for conservation, argued that the suit would not hold up in court. 

“Congress decides how public lands are managed. Congress decides when public lands are disposed of,” he said. “The Enabling Act that brought Utah in as a state did not leave any wiggle room.”

The state’s suit argues that under this law, the federal government’s authority was “limited to the power to dispose of those lands.”

While Cox said that the goal of the suit was to bring lands under state management — not privatization — Weiss expressed concern that if the state were to succeed, land sell-offs would be the ultimate outcome. 

“The costs of fighting one wildfire on this theoretically new state land that they want could wipe out a state budget,” Weiss said. “We've seen Oregon have to sell off state forests because they couldn't afford to maintain them and manage them.”

“What, what this would lead to … is trophy homes all up and down Moab, trophy homes on the edge of Bears Ears,” he added.