Utah’s lawsuit seeks to end unconstitutional federal control over 18.5 million acres of BLM-held
land
SALT LAKE CITY—After decades of legal analysis, the state of Utah has filed a landmark public lands lawsuit asking the U.S. Supreme Court to address whether the federal government can simply hold unappropriated lands within a state indefinitely. Unappropriated lands are those that the federal government simply holds without a congressionally defined purpose. The “unappropriated” land in question is approximately 18.5 million acres in Utah controlled by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA).
Read the Press Release here.
Read the Motion for Leave to File Bill of Complaint, Affidavit of Service and Certificate of Compliance for more information about the Utah Attorney General’s Office filings.
This lawsuit will NOT impact the millions of “appropriated” acres already designated
as national parks, national monuments, wilderness areas, national forests, Tribal lands, or
military properties. (See Map).
The federal government currently controls nearly 70 percent of the land in Utah. In comparison,
the federal government owns less than one percent of the land in Connecticut, New York, and
Rhode Island, and less than three percent of the land in Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Ohio,
and Pennsylvania. (See Map).
Visit Stand For Our Land to learn more.
