ELR Citation: 56 ELR 20084
No(s). 23-4106 and 23-4107 (10th Cir. Jun 23, 2026)

The Tenth Circuit, 2-1, affirmed in part and vacated in part dismissal of a challenge to President Biden's expansion of two national monuments in Utah. Utah and others affected by the expansion argued it exceeded the limits Congress placed on the president's powers in the Antiquities Act. A district court dismissed the suit, finding that sovereign immunity forbade it from reviewing the president's expansion of the monuments and that some plaintiffs lacked standing. On appeal, plaintiffs argued the district court ignored the "raft of precedent" that the ultra vires exception permitted challenges to presidential actions that exceed authority Congress delegated through statutes like the Antiquities Act, and that the district court erred in dismissing their APA claims that agencies' interim management plans were final agency action. The appellate court found the district court erred when it concluded that it lacked authority to declare a president's actions ultra vires without additional guidance from Congress or a higher court; but that that the agency actions upon which plaintiffs' APA claims were based no longer existed, and that certain plaintiffs waived their argument for standing because they argued it too late. It affirmed in part, vacated in part, and remanded for further proceedings.