Utah taps law firm with Trump ties in fight with Biden admin over national monuments - Reuters
(Reuters) - Utah's attorney general is hiring a law firm for possible litigation over the Biden administration's decision to restore two major U.S. nature reserves to their former size, reversing a move by President Donald Trump.
Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes said Saturday that he awarded law firm Consovoy McCarthy a contract to assist with "research and analysis about potential litigation" related to the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in southern Utah.
Trump cut the 1.3-million acre Bears Ears monument by 85% to around 200,000 acres in 2017 to allow for commercial activity on the former monument land. Grand Staircase-Escalante, created at 1.9 million acres, was reduced to half that size.
President Joe Biden restored the previous boundaries in October. Reyes in a statement called that decision "federal overreach."
A White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Neither did Consovoy McCarthy.
Consovoy McCarthy, an Arlington, Virginia-based litigation boutique, is defending Trump amid a demand for his financial records. It has also represented Trump's re-election campaign and the national Republican Party in a failed lawsuit to block a Nevada mail-in ballot law ahead of last November's election.
More recently, the firm helped file a federal appeals court petition earlier this month challenging the Biden administration's COVID-19 vaccination requirement.
The firm counts among its lawyers Tyler Green, who was from 2015 to 2020 Utah's solicitor general.
Utah's contract award for the national monuments work said Consovoy McCarthy would charge the state a blended hourly rate of $498 an hour.
Reyes said in a statement that he urged Congress to work with local governments, states and tribes on a solution that would "avoid a potentially acrimonious legal challenge."
Read more:
source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/utah-taps-law-firm-with-trump-ties-fight-with-biden-admin-over-national-2021-12-06/
Your content is great. However, if any of the content contained herein violates any rights of yours, including those of copyright, please contact us immediately by e-mail at media[@]kissrpr.com.