ELR Citation: 53 ELR 20067
No(s). 19-35921 (9th Cir. Apr 24, 2023)

The Ninth Circuit affirmed summary judgment for the U.S. government in a challenge to President Obama's issuance of a proclamation expanding the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument in southwestern Oregon. A timber company argued the proclamation was an invalid exercise of the Antiquities Act because it violated the Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road Grant Lands Act's (O&C Act's) purpose to reserve certain land for timber production. A district court held that the proclamation was consistent with both the president's authority under the Antiquities Act and the O&C Act's land management directives. The appellate court agreed, finding Congress did not intend for the O&C Act to nullify the Antiquities Act, and that the proclamation's exercise of Antiquities Act power was consistent with the text, history, and purpose of the O&C Act, which granted broad discretion to DOI to manage O&C land for uses other than timber. It affirmed summary judgment for the government.