Wyoming and 11 other states have signed onto a lawsuit that could bring millions of acres of federal land under Utah’s control.
If it succeeds, the case might impact roughly 17 million acres of federal land in Wyoming, too.
Utah’s lawsuit filed with the U.S. Supreme Court says the federal Bureau of Land Management shouldn’t be able to own land in the state without giving it a designation, like national monument or national park status.
Wyoming’s attorney general on behalf of the state, U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman (R-Wyoming) and 26 members of the state Legislature have filed “friends of the court” briefs supporting Utah’s petition to be heard, saying the current federal system harms state sovereignty.
But there’s been pushback on the effort.
“We're jeopardizing the access to those public lands,” said Alec Underwood with the environmental group Wyoming Outdoor Council.
Underwood argues other states have seen similar legal efforts that were later defeated.
“When you take a look at the history of federal lands disposal to states, it's clear that it has shown a pattern that these lands are then sold, privatized or developed,” Underwood said.
He and others are also concerned about Wyoming state agencies’ resources and ability to manage such a huge swath of land if it did end up transferred to the state.
Others, like Petroleum Association of Wyoming President Pete Obermueller, said even if the case makes it to the court, it isn’t possible to assume development or subdivision would happen in Wyoming or Utah yet.
“It would be sort of a little bit [of] uncharted territory in terms of how and when they would be required to dispose [of the land],” said Obermueller.
Utah’s basic argument, according to Obermueller, is that federal ownership of all that land is siphoning away dollars that should go to the state.
And, even if the Supreme Court does agree to take up the case, it only impacts Utah right now and would need to be broadened to include Wyoming, Obermueller said.
Gov. Mark Gordon announced Wyoming’s amicus brief late last month.
In a 2022 interview with the Keep It Public Wyoming Coalition, Gordon told an interviewer that large-scale federal land transfers were “a fool's mission … Before we ever gave up those lands [to the federal government], our act of admission required that of us.”
“I would oppose it anyways because we need to have access to federal lands,” he said at the time.
Michael Pearlman, Gordon’s communications director, told Wyoming Public Radio in an email that the governor’s support of Utah’s case “is meant to demonstrate [his] concern for how Federal land managers have worked with states -- Wyoming including -- on land management policies.”
“The Governor remains a supporter of public lands and access for sportspeople, but believes Wyoming should be the primary authority on our lands,” Pearlman said.
The U.S. Supreme Court hasn’t decided yet whether to take up Utah’s case. If it does, the case would bypass the usual appeals process through Utah’s court system and go directly to the high court, which currently has a conservative supermajority.
This reporting was made possible by a grant from the Corporation For Public Broadcasting, supporting state government coverage in the state. Wyoming Public Media and Jackson Hole Community Radio are partnering to cover state issues both on air and online.
