This week President Trump angered environmentalists and other groups by reducing the size of two large national monuments in Utah—Bears Ears and Grand Staircase Escalante. Using Presidential Proclamations and invoking the 1906 Antiquities Act, he slashed these monuments by about 1 million square acres. While groups of Utahns and especially the state's Republican politicians applauded these executive actions, lawsuits alleging the president exceeded his powers were filed quickly.
These lawsuits claim that while presidents have the power under the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments, they do not have the power to reduce them in size. Courts have not directly addressed this question, but the claims rest on fairly shaky ground. In reality, courts are quite likely to uphold this exercise of presidential power (perhaps with one exception).
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