National Monuments

As provided by 5 U.S.C. § 552(a)(6)(A), we look forward to a reply within twenty working days.

Plaintiffs bring this case to remedy violations of the Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”), 5 U.S.C. § 552, by the United States Department of the Interior, United States Bureau of Land Management, and Council on Environmental Quality (collectively, “Defendants”). The violations arise out of Defendants’ continuing failure to respond to a series of FOIA requests Plaintiffs submitted for records related to the administration’s ongoing review of existing national monuments designated over the past twenty-one years pursuant to the 1906 Antiquities Act, 54 U.S.C. §§ 320301–320303. President Donald Trump mandated the review and required Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke to provide recommendations about any action the President (among others) should take concerning the monuments, after elected officials in Utah urged him to reverse monument designations in that state. See Executive Order 13792, Review of Designations Under the Antiquities Act, 82 Fed. Reg. 20429, 20429-31 (Apr. 26, 2017).