On April 26, 2017 President Trump signed an executive order that enabled the Department of the Interior to review national monument designation stretching back 20 years.

What is motivating this action?
Designations for national monuments is a contentious issue… Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum.

How are national monuments created?
“National monuments are created by the president under the Antiquities Act, which allows the president to decide to protect certain lands. The president can designate monuments with a stroke of a pen, and it often will allow for more preservation of resources and make it harder to do things that are destructive to the resources in these areas.”

Background on Presidents establishing national monuments
“Under the Antiquities Act, 16 presidents have proclaimed 157 national monuments, protecting a diverse range of historic, archaeological, cultural, and geologic resources. Many of these monuments, including such iconic places as the Grand Canyon, Zion, Olympic, and Acadia, have been expanded and redesignated by Congress as national parks.”

Six monuments up for review in California:

• Mojave Trails National Monument
• Sand to Snow National Monument
• San Gabriel Mountains National Monument
• Berryessa Snow Mountain
• Carrizo Plain National Monument
• Giant Sequoia National Monument

What are the important dates regarding the review?

• September 30 – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet
• October 23 – Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet

Sean B. Hecht is the Co-Executive Director of the Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, and Evan Frankel Professor of Policy and Practice, at UCLA School of Law. He works with students to serve environmental organizations and government agencies in his role as co-director of the Frank G. Wells Environmental Law Clinic. His teaching includes Public Natural Resources Law and Policy, Environmental Law, and a California State Environmental Law seminar, in addition to the Environmental Law Clinic.

Sean is a frequent speaker and media commenter on a wide range of environmental, natural resources, and energy law and policy issues. He collaborates on projects with practicing environmental lawyers, environmental and environmental justice advocacy organizations, policymakers, and the business community. Sean’s research interests include developing legal and policy tools for building resilience to climate change’s projected impacts; analyzing the insurance and finance sectors’ roles in addressing climate change; examining the relationship between environmental justice and mainstream environmental advocacy; analyzing the role of environmental impact analysis under CEQA, NEPA, and other laws in protecting health and the environment; and studying the dynamics of federal public land law and policy and the relationship between state and federal regulation on public lands.

After law school, Sean served as law clerk for Hon. Laughlin E. Waters of the United States District Court for the Central District of California. He began law practice at the firm Strumwasser & Woocher, litigating cases involving election law, employment law, environmental and land-use law, and insurance regulation. More recently, he served as a Deputy Attorney General for the California Department of Justice, representing the Attorney General and state agencies on environmental and public health matters.

Sean is a past chair of the State Bar of California’s environmental law section, and the founding (past) board chair of the Harbor Community Benefit Foundation, a nonprofit that works to mitigate Port-related environmental impacts, including environmental justice impacts, and improve environmental quality in the near-Port Los Angeles communities of San Pedro and Wilmington. Along with co-counsel in Center for Biological Diversity v. Department of Fish and Wildlife (Newhall Ranch), he received the 2016 California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY) Award for environmental law. He blogs at http://legal-planet.org.

Last chance to comment on fate of 6 California national monuments
89.3 KPCC Take Two | July 10, 2017

Letter to the Secretary of the Interior
PDF | July 9, 2017

Letter from environmental scholars to the Secretary of the Interior and Secretary of the Departments of Commerce
PDF | July 6, 2017

Presidents Lack the Authority to Abolish or Diminish National Monuments
Virginia Law Review | June 9, 2017

Politicians and Commentators Who Criticize Recent National Monuments Are Making Up Their Own Version of History
Legal Planet | May 8, 2017

National Monuments: Presidents Can Create them, but Only Congress can Undo Them
The Conversation | April 27, 2017

UCLA School of Law
385 Charles E. Young Dr. East
Los Angeles, CA 90095

hecht@law.ucla.edu

Twitter: @seanhecht