DOJ Urges Supreme Court to Reject Utah Bid to Manage 18.5 Million Acres of Federal Land

Utah’s motion seeks direct hearing before the nation’s highest court to determine if federal agencies can ‘indefinitely hold public lands.’

Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes holds a photograph from the spill from the Colorado gold mine during the State Water Development Commission meeting in Salt Lake City on Aug. 18, 2015. Reyes told Utah lawmakers that legal action will be on the table if EPA response to the spill falls short. AP Photo/Rick Bowmer

The United States Department of Justice (DOJ) is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to reject Utah’s motion for it to hear a lawsuit challenging the federal government’s “continued possession of unappropriated public lands.”

While the court has not agreed to hear Utah’s case, the state’s claim that the U.S. government, which manages more than a quarter of the nation’s land mass, does not have a constitutional right to hold land “indefinitely” underscores decades of tension between locals and federal land-use policies across the west.