
SCOTUS Slaps Away Public Land Grab Attempt
Western hunters and anglers will be breathing a temporary sigh of relief after the Supreme Court of the United States today declined to hear a state of Utah bid to wrest 18.5 million acres of public land away from the federal government.

While nominally a Utah vs. Bureau of Land Management issue, with other states and politicians attempting to join the lawsuit and given previous chapters in a long-running battle over federal lands in the West, it has far wider implications that worried sportsmen and other public land users.
“We applaud the Supreme Court for affirming what we’ve known all along – American public lands are an essential part of what it means to be an American and the bedrock to our Western way of life,” said Aaron Kindle, the National Wildlife Federation’s director of sporting advocacy, in a press release out early this morning. “Other states and elected officials who supported this lawsuit should take heed and reject this misguided effort. Public lands are not for sale, and they never will be.”
Technically, SCOTUS plainly denied Utah’s request to file a lawsuit, but NWF as well as Backcountry Hunters and Anglers advised sportsmen to stay vigilant against similar expected moves, as cases can still be filed at lower court levels.
“Today’s rejection of Utah’s attempted land grab reaffirms what we’ve long known: These lands belong to all Americans and were never Utah’s to take. Not only did this case threaten to seize 18.5 million acres of federal land from public ownership, but it set in motion the potential to dismantle America’s public lands system enjoyed by millions of hunters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts. If successful, Utah’s lawsuit could have endangered the very existence of federal public lands in every corner of the country, undermining access and opportunities enjoyed by millions of Americans,” BHA CEO Patrick Berry said in another press release.
Utah argued transferring BLM lands to the state “would be more responsive and allow the state access to revenue from taxes and development projects,” according to the Associated Press. The bid, filed last summer, was considered a long shot, given a late 1890s promise at statehood not to try to grab federal lands as well as Constitutional clauses, the news organization previously reported.