"Opponents of a sprawling national monument surrounding the Grand Canyon National Park on Monday launched a pair of lawsuits challenging the site, opening another front in a Republican effort to roll back presidential authority to protect federal lands.

The lawsuits — filed separately by the Arizona state Legislature and an Arizona rancher represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation — target the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni — Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in northern Arizona established last year by President Joe Biden.

Both challenges argue that Biden exceeded his authority under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which allows the nation’s leader to set aside federal lands to protect areas of cultural, historic or scientific interest. They join lawsuits brought by Utah lawmakers involving monuments in that state that have questioned the breadth of the Antiquities Act and sought to get the law before the Supreme Court, in part seizing on critical comments made in 2021 by Chief Justice John Roberts."

Jennifer Yachnin reports for E&E News February 13, 2024. [2]