"An opinion by the Office of Legal Counsel says the Antiquities Act of 1906 allows presidents to shrink or eliminate designations by previous presidents."
"A key legal adviser to the White House said that President Donald Trump has the authority under existing federal law to abolish a pair of national monuments in California, as well as any others across the country created by prior presidents.
Lanora Pettit, who helms the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel (OLC), overturned a nearly 90-year-old precedent governing national monuments in a new legal opinion published Tuesday but dated May 27.
The opinion, authored by Pettit, declares that the Antiquities Act of 1906 not only allows presidents to create national monuments from federal lands, but also says they can declare that existing monuments “either never were or no longer are deserving of the Act’s protections.”"
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