Capitol Hill Blue
Lawsuit Challenges Clinton's National Monument Legacy
Thursday, August 31, 2000
By MICHAEL DOYLE
WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's legacy of creating sprawling
new national monuments, like the one in California's Sequoia
National Forest, is now being challenged on constitutional
grounds.
Opponents of the new monuments are suing Clinton in federal court
in Washington for what they say is his unconstitutionally
ambitious use of the 1906 Antiquities Act. Clinton has used the
law this year to create the 328,000-acre Giant Sequoia National
Monument, the 195,000-acre Hanford Reach National Monument in
Washington and others.
"The Antiquities Act was written for antiquities," William Perry
Pendley, president of the Denver-based Mountain States Legal
Foundation, said Thursday. "It was not written to set aside vast
expanses of territory because it's pretty or has old trees."
A conservative group that's historically received funding from
companies including Texaco, Exxon, Chevron and the Coors
Foundation, the Mountain States Legal Foundation has previously
challenged other monument designations by Clinton.
All told, Clinton has used the unilateral powers provided by the
1906 law to designate 3.7 million acres as national monuments.
With about five months left in his presidency, this is more than
any of his predecessors except President Jimmy Carter.
"All of them are worthy of protection," Council on Environmental
Quality spokeswoman Mary Hanley said Thursday, adding that "we
certainly don't agree" with the thrust of the newly filed suit.
The lawsuit specifically targets the Hanford monument and three
others established this year in Arizona, Oregon and Colorado. The
Giant Sequoia monument established in April is not included in
the lawsuit, but San Joaquin Valley opponents of the new monument
are closely tracking the latest legal arguments.
"We're going to see how that flies," said Fresno resident Tom
Barile, chairman of a coalition that's fought the Giant Sequoia
monument. "If it doesn't work, then we'll try something else."
Barile's group, the Sierra Nevada Access, Multiple-Use and
Stewardship Coalition, now claims about 82 organizations as
members. Barile said the group's possible own legal challenge to
the Giant Sequoia monument might develop over the next several
months, based on grounds similar to those included in the new
lawsuit.
Barile said he is also still waiting for government agencies to
respond to Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests for
documents related to the Giant Sequoia monument. The Council on
Environmental Quality has likewise not yet provided documents in
response to a FOIA request filed by the Bee last March.
So far, no legal challenge - or, for the most part, legislative
challenge - has succeeded against the 100-plus national monuments
created under the 1906 law. The simply worded law authorizes
presidents, acting without congressional approval, to protect
"objects of historic or scientific interest" by designating
national monuments "which in all cases shall be confined to the
smallest area compatible with ... proper care and management of
the objects to be protected."
The Mountain States Legal Foundation contends Clinton exceeded
his constitutional authority by going far beyond this "smallest
area" language in creating large monuments. The core legal
question is: When Congress uses such vague words, where does the
president's discretion end?
A 1920 Supreme Court decision involving the Grand Canyon has
persuaded officials since that the president enjoys great leeway
in determining a monument's size. Pendley, though, contends
Congress has subsequently clarified that a president's
environmental actions including Antiquities Act declarations must
be more tightly constrained.
© 2000 Scripps-McClatchy Western Service
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