How much square footage can a president take away with a stroke of his pen? 10 million acres? 500 million acres? more?
The answer, according to sixth-generation rancher Chris Heaton, is that no acre is above the law. Heaton's livestock operations are at risk from recent land grabs by the federal government, including nearly 1 million acres claimed by President Biden under the Antiquities Act through the creation of Ancestor Footprints National Monument.
Heaton has filed a federal lawsuit against Biden, alleging abuse of presidential power and potentially facing fines and prison time for routine activities at the ranch.
“My ancestors built this ranch, and I have no intention of losing it,” Heaton says. “I'm going to do this the right way in court. If Biden wants a fight, he'll fight.”
weapon
In August 2023, Biden used the authority of the Antiquities Act, a law aimed at protecting archaeological sites and landmarks and their immediate surrounding lands, to secure 917,618 federal acres in northern Arizona. He issued a proclamation converting the acre to Ancestral Footprints National Monument.
Mr. Biden has applied sweeping government regulations to every inch of the monument, which is 150,000 acres larger than Yosemite and 75,000 acres larger than Grand Teton National Park and Great Smoky Mountains Park combined. Biden's declaration states that the landscape, species, The object is an object (with or without a name). The water that flows into the Colorado River, the geology, cliffs, faults, deserts, grasslands, forests, forests, riparian vegetation, and various endangered species.
“Normal ranching isn't done here anymore; that's what my family has been doing for decades,” Heaton insists. “It is not permissible to disturb or destroy known and unknown objects on monuments overnight. Some are on the list and some are not. , you don't literally know every object, but they have criminal penalties associated with them. This is like letting someone into a game and expecting them to play by the rules without telling them the rules. Something like that.”
Heaton, 37, raises cattle on 48,603 acres, a combination of private land and acres leased from the state of Arizona and the Bureau of Land Management. It currently overlaps with this monument. He has his three federal grazing permits and his 47 private water rights.
Heaton's 200 cows are on monument-designated land every day of the year. Heaton and his family spend their daily rhythm tending to livestock, cleaning water holes, cutting grass, removing silt, mending fences, removing minerals, cutting ice, repairing roads, and much more. We have standard production practices, all of which are now at risk.
In February 2024, Mr. Heaton filed a lawsuit against Mr. Biden on behalf of the Pacific Legal Foundation (PLF). Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. and Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stonemanning.
(The Department of Justice, Department of Agriculture, DOI, and BLM all declined requests from Farm Journal for comment on Chris Heaton's lawsuit.)
“We are asking federal courts to check Mr. Biden’s executive overreach,” said PLF attorney Adam Griffin. “Biden took over a million acres and said the 'landscape' is an object and everything in it is an object. Look at the absurdity. The whole landscape that Chris Heaton is painting is… Now it's a national monument. How does a landscape become an object? I've never in my life heard anyone look at a landscape and say, “That's a beautiful thing.''
PLF attorney Frank Garrison said the Biden administration is “legislating the law through proclamation.”
“Only Congress can pass such laws, not the president. Biden is taking workarounds to pass regulations that cannot pass Congress, and their impact depends on natural resources. It's hurting people who make a living by doing this,” Garrison said. “Chris Heaton complies with all land use laws, but suddenly the government could make him a criminal over his daily ranching activities.”
“If anyone wants a clear picture of how the power of government extends to the level of omnipotence, look no further than the Antiquities Act, the weapon in the hands of the president,” Griffin said. he repeats.
“Doesn't the law matter?”
In 1906, at the request of Theodore Roosevelt, Congress passed the Antiquities Act. In just 441 words, the president wrote on his one page, “Historical buildings, historic and prehistoric structures, and other historic or scientific buildings located on lands owned or controlled by the United States government.” allowed to declare objects of interest by public declaration. The state should become a national monument…”
Congress approved the Antiquities Act, which allows the president to protect certain sites in the strict crosshairs, as evidenced by the Congressional debate over whether the area of monuments should be limited from 320 acres to 640 acres. (Since Yellowstone's founding in 1872, Congress had exclusive authority to create vast tracts of national parks.)
Upon passage of the Antiquities Act, its language authorizes the President to “reserve parcels of land as part of the shall be limited to a minimum area.”
Over the next 120 years, the “smallest area” expanded to millions of acres, and the “object” expanded to include an ecosystem. Since 1906, successive presidents have used the Antiquities Act to seal off an astonishing swath of land, totaling about 800 million acres.
After all, the battle for land in American history never ends, and laws and constitutions be damned, Uncle Sam is still at the forefront of the struggle. In recent decades, multiple presidents have significantly increased ownership of national monuments. jimmy carter. 55 million acres. Bill Clinton; 5 million acres. George W. Bush. 215 million acres. Barack Obama. 554 million acres (mainly via his two marine monuments).
“They're acting as if there's no limiting principle,” Garrison said. “But that's not how our Constitution works. What's next? If the president can designate amorphous concepts like species, landscapes, ecosystems, and objects, then how much land can the president set free?” Can we do it? The whole West?”
Heaton asks pointed questions throughout the lawsuit: Does public opinion matter? Do congressmen, senators, state representatives, county commissions, and resolutions not matter? Do one president have complete control and the people and elected officials have no meaning? ”
Ranching, mining, logging?
Heaton's Y Cross Ranch is located 60 miles north of the Grand Canyon. He has been working this land in the shadow of his father and grandfather since he was eight years old. “My family has been ranching here since before BLM existed. We take care of the land, we pay grazing fees, and we don't get anything for free. We don't get anything for free. The state has millions of acres of national monuments all around us, but if you talk to people in coffee shops or grocery stores or just regular people on the street, you'll find that the government has no enforcement activities in place. You can see that the local economy is being suffocated because of this, and the region is going to be dependent on tourism.”
“Ranching, mining, logging, the government wants to control it all or shut it down,” Heaton said. “That's why past presidents and now Biden are willing to ignore the law. My ranch and many other producers are targets of his control.”
(It is estimated that there is at least 2.6 billion pounds of uranium in northern Arizona. In 2022, 95% of the uranium needed for U.S. nuclear power plants was imported from foreign countries, including Russia.)
“Special interests knew they couldn't legally do it through Congress, so they looked to the president to put this land under federal control,” agreed PLF attorney Adam Griffin. “But before so much federal land is sealed off, that process should be delivered to the people through their representatives in Congress. It should not be left to one individual, and it never was.
Whose wish?
Will Mr. Heaton's case, or one like it, end up before the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS)?
In 2021, SCOTUS refused to hear. Massachusetts Lobsterman Association v. Raimondowhen an incident related to the Antiquities Act is triggered President Obama declared 5,000 square miles of ocean a national monument and declared all fishing prohibited. But Chief Justice John Roberts expressed his concerns in a four-page statement.
Governments enjoy much greater flexibility in securing monuments under the Antiquities Act, but as noted above, that flexibility comes with unique constraints. This means that the land reserved under this Act must be limited to the smallest area compatible with the care and management of the site. Object to be protected. However, after a certain point, this restriction no longer provided any meaningful restraint. A law that allows the President to designate “landmarks,” “structures,” and “articles” as monuments in his sole discretion, along with a minimum land area compatible with their administration, becomes an indiscernible authority. Transformed. Securing vast and irregular terrain above and below the sea.
Antiquities law began as a simple measure to protect the past. When the legislative branch moved the ball through Congress, the executive branch, through the president, took the ball and carried it out. Heaton claims the president is acting beyond the Constitution.
“I'm filing this lawsuit because Mr. Biden believes he has the authority to impact the lives of so many people in agriculture and other industries with baseless declarations,” Heaton said. he concluded. “He wants to act according to his wishes, but I want him to act according to the law.”
For more articles by Chris Bennett (cbennett@farmjournal.com or 662-592-1106), see:
Power and privacy: Landowner sues game warden to challenge property trespass
Corn and Cocaine: Roger Reeves and the Most Incredible Farm Story Ever Told
American Gothic: A farm couple gets caught in a $9 million crop insurance scam.
A rare pistol lost for decades is discovered in a farmhouse attic
Bollworm Farm: A crazy story of a wild animal conspiracy to corner the snake venom market
Tractorcade: How an epic convoy and legendary peasant army shook Washington, D.C.
The strange mystery of mummified coon dogs is solved after 40 years
China stole the farm while America slept.
