Law professor comments on national monuments review

Leading natural resource and environmental law professors comment on Trump review of national monuments

As we’ve been covering here on Legal Planet, the Trump Administration is conducting a review of national monuments created over the past 20 years, and has indicated it may seek to eliminate or shrink some of those monuments.  Part of that process is a public comment period.  (You can comment here, deadline is July 10.)  A group of 121 environmental, natural resource, and administrative law professors just submitted a comment to the Secretary of the Interior arguing that the President does not have power to eliminate or shrink national monuments, and raising some important questions about the review process. (I am one of the signatories.)

You can find the comment letter here:

national monuments comment letter from law professors_as filed

The letter draws on a recent on-line law review article that lays out the relevant law about Presidential power to eliminate or shrink national monuments.  (Again, I’m a co-author of that piece as well.)  A link for that article is here: http://www.virginialawreview.org/volumes/content/presidents-lack-authority-abolish-or-diminish-national-monuments

national monuments