Utah lawsuit seeks state control over vast areas of federal land

Utah's attorney general said Tuesday he's asked to file a lawsuit with the U.S. Supreme Court challenging federal control over vast tracts of public land covering about one-third of the state.

The legal action — considered a longshot attempt to assert state powers over federal agencies including the Bureau of Land Management — marks the latest jab in a long-running feud between states and the U.S. government over who should control huge swaths of the West and the enormous oil and gas, timber, and other resources they contain.

Attorney General Sean Reyes said the state is seeking to assert state control over some 29,000 square miles (75,000 square kilometers), an area nearly as large as South Carolina. Those parcels are under federal administration and used for energy production, grazing, mining, recreation and other purposes.

Utah’s world-famous national parks — and also the national monuments managed by the land bureau — would remain in federal hands under the lawsuit. Federal agencies combined have jurisdiction over almost 70 percent of the state.

“Utah cannot manage, police or care for more than two thirds of its own territory because it’s controlled by people who don’t live in Utah, who aren’t elected by Utah citizens and not responsive to our local needs," Reyes said.

He said the federal dominance prevents the state from taxing those holdings or using eminent domain to develop critical infrastructure such as public roads and communication systems.

University of Colorado law professor Mark Squillace said the lawsuit was unlikely to succeed and was “more a political stunt than anything else.”

The Utah Enabling Act of 1894 that governed Utah's designation as a state included language that it wouldn't make any claim on public land, Squillace said.

“This is directly contrary to what they agreed to when they became a state,” he said.

The election-year lawsuit amplifies a longstanding grievance among Western Republicans that's also been aired by officials in neighboring states such as Nevada, Idaho and Wyoming.

It comes a decade after Utah's Republican Legislature said it planned to pursue a lawsuit against federal control and pay millions to an outside legal team.

Reyes did not have an exact figure on expected costs of legal expenses but said those would be significantly less than previously projected because the scope of the legal challenge has been scaled down, and because they’re trying to go directly to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Representatives of the Bureau of Land Management did not immediately respond to email and telephone messages seeking comment.

Federal lawsuits generally start in district courts before working their way up to the U.S. Supreme Court on appeals. However, the Constitution allows some cases to begin at the high court when states are involved. The Supreme Court can refuse such requests.