Overview

• Office of Legal Counsel head Lanora Pettit issued the May 27 memo concluding that the Antiquities Act grants presidents authority to revoke prior monument designations.
• The opinion overturns a 1938 determination by Attorney General Homer Cummings that presidents lacked power to undo predecessors’ monument proclamations.
• The memo specifically empowers President Trump to consider abolishing the Chuckwalla and Sáttítla Highlands monuments in California, which together protect over 848,000 acres.
• Although past presidents have reduced monument boundaries, no administration has ever fully abolished a national monument.
• Environmental and tribal groups warn that the new ruling could threaten protections for cultural sites, biodiversity and resource management on public lands.