Oh, so I got into a conservation with someone claiming that Trump’s actions on Bears Ears and Escalante-Grand Canyon NM reductions was legal.

Guess who they pointed to as their source?

John Yoo.

Yeah, that John Yoo (he of the terror memos infamy). He wrote up a piece with a co-author claiming that the president has the right to increase or decrease the size of a national monument.

Of course, every admin before this has abided by Attorneys General who found that the president can only declare a location a national monument but can’t reduce the size - that takes an act of Congress.

Yoo even notes this before sailing right past it to claim president can do anything.

The Antiquities Act makes it clear that a president can only declare a national monument. They can’t reduce the size, and there’s lawsuits planned including Sierra Club and multiple Native American tribes who oppose this action.