You can’t unring a bell, unpop a balloon, or unsee certain things that you really, really didn’t want to see in the first place. A revived lawsuit also argues that you can’t simply unspoil a national monument, once again pitting conservation groups, tribal nations, and a clothing company against the Trump administration.
On September 2, 2026, Patagonia and other plaintiffs moved for leave to file amended and supplemental complaints challenging President Donald Trump’s 2026 proclamations reducing Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. The plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the reductions invalid under the Antiquities Act of 1906.
The litigation began after Trump issued similar proclamations in 2017 that significantly reduced both monuments. After then-President Joe Biden restored the monuments’ boundaries in January 2021, the litigation was stayed rather than resolved on the merits.
The related cases include conservation groups, tribal nations, and Patagonia. The coalition includes the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, while Earthjustice represents some of the plaintiffs. They argue that, while the Antiquities Act allows a president to establish national monuments, it does not give a president the power to revoke or substantially reduce a previous president's designation through a proclamation.
Mining interests have attempted to stake claims on some of the lands removed from the monuments before the scheduled September 11, 2026, opening date. Under the 2026 proclamations, however, land removed from the monuments is not scheduled to reopen to new mining claims until that date. Opponents of the reductions argue that the monuments contain sacred and archaeological sites, fossil resources, wildlife habitat, and recreation areas that are too valuable to open to expanded development.
Go Take a Hike (at a National Monument)
Located in southern Utah near the Arizona border, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante are major destinations for hiking, mountain biking, rock climbing, camping, and other outdoor recreation. They are also considered “living cultural landscapes” by numerous tribal nations.
The Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation joined forces to create the Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition in 2015.
President Bill Clinton designated Grand Staircase-Escalante as a national monument in 1996. In 2016, President Barack Obama established Bears Ears as a national monument and created the Bears Ears Commission, with representatives from the five tribes, to help guide monument planning and management. However, those protections soon came under fire.
During his first term, Trump issued proclamations reducing both monuments in 2017. The actions reduced Bears Ears by roughly 85% and Grand Staircase-Escalante by roughly 47%. Conservation groups and tribal nations sued, and Patagonia joined the fight as an unexpected corporate ally.
Patagonia, the Ventura, California-based outdoor-apparel company, says it had been involved in efforts to protect Bears Ears since at least 2013. In response to Trump’s 2017 proclamation, Patagonia changed its website homepage to the stark statement, “The President Stole Your Land,” and joined the legal challenge. The company’s response drew backlash, including accusations from administration officials that it was “playing politics” to sell clothes and the spread of the hashtag #BoycottPatagonia on social media.
After Biden restored protections for Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante in 2021, the lawsuits were stayed rather than dismissed. But following Trump’s 2026 reductions, the legal fight has returned.
Fossils and Sacred Sites and Mesas, Oh My
National monuments are not national parks, but they reserve federal land to protect specific historic, cultural, and scientific objects. The precise protections and allowed uses vary by monument proclamation and other federal laws. Still, monument status can limit new mining, oil drilling, and other forms of development, subject to valid existing rights.
Critics of the size of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante have argued that national monuments do not need to cover such large areas. Trump echoed that position in a pair of presidential proclamations issued on July 13, 2026, cutting the monuments even more deeply than in 2017.
Bears Ears was reduced from about 1.36 million acres to about 121,096 acres, a cut of roughly 91%. Grand Staircase-Escalante was reduced from about 1.87 million acres to about 181,541 acres, a cut of roughly 90%. Together, the proclamations removed nearly 3 million acres from the two monuments.
The proposed amended and supplemental complaints argue that Trump lacked authority to reduce the monuments under the Antiquities Act and that the proclamations intrude on Congress’s constitutional authority over federal property. The plaintiff groups challenge both the 2017 and 2026 proclamations and seek declaratory and injunctive relief preventing federal agencies and officials from implementing them.
Patagonia appears willing to risk Trump’s disfavor again for the chance to preserve Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante from further intrusion and development. The revived litigation could help determine whether presidents may substantially reduce national monuments created by their predecessors — and what that means for millions of acres of federal land in Utah.
