Adding to opposition from the Trump administration and Blythe city officials, a lawsuit filed earlier this month in Michigan seeks to cancel federal protections for the Biden-created Chuckwalla National Monument in Riverside County.
Advocates for the 624,000-acre monument in the Southern California desert near Joshua Tree National Park disputed the lawsuit’s claims of overreaching presidential authority and abuse of the 1906 Antiquities Act.
“This lawsuit is an out-of-state special interest group trying to undo something that Californians and people like me fought for,” said Janessa Goldbeck, CEO of the Vet Voice Foundation, which advocated for Chuckwalla’s monument designation.
The Texas Public Policy Foundation, a conservative think tank based in Austin, filed the suit May 1 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan. The suit, which names Interior Secretary Douglas Burgum and the Interior Department as defendants, alleges Dan Torongo of Brighton, Michigan, will be blocked from mining on Chuckwalla lands in his retirement and won’t be able to buy or stake new claims. Since 1978 Torongo’s family has held mining claims in the Chuckwalla Mountains.
“My family has utilized the Small Miners Act of 1872 to claim and maintain mineral rights in the Chuckwalla Mountains since 1981; we have built a treasure trove of great memories in the process,” Torongo, 48, said in a statement. “This all ended on January 14, 2025, when a lame duck president chose to steal mineral rights from citizens like me.”
The lawsuit also claims federal protections prevent driving, hiking and exploring trails inside the monument by off-roading enthusiasts from the BlueRibbon Coalition.
“The Chuckwalla National Monument is the latest example of a president abusing the limited powers of the Antiquities Act to restrict access to hundreds of thousands of acres of public land,” BlueRibbon Coalition Executive Director Ben Burr said in a statement. “Our California members use this area for camping, off-roading, exploring and rockhounding, and the Monument Proclamation makes it clear that this designation will prevent our members from being able to fully enjoy these activities.”
Burr said the U.S. Constitution’s property clause “gives Congress the authority to define management of federal government land, and the Congress can’t delegate its Constitutional powers to the president. The courts must restore the important guardrails of our Constitution, or presidents will continue abusing the Antiquities Act through an amorphous power grab with no discernible limits.”
In a statement to HeySoCal.com, an Interior spokesperson said the department “reaffirms its unwavering commitment to conserving and managing the nation’s natural and cultural resources, upholding tribal trust responsibilities, and overseeing public lands and waters for the benefit of all Americans, while prioritizing fiscal responsibility for the American people, but Department policy is to not comment on litigation.”
Advocates for the monument challenged the lawsuit’s allegations, saying existing mining claims are still allowed and disputing that plaintiff’s assertion that the Antiquities Act was originally only meant to protect small areas of a few hundred acres. Presidents of both parties have used the Antiquities Act for over 100 years to designate monuments of widely varying sizes.
Chuckwalla proponents also said the protected area is popular for hiking, camping, using authorized off-road vehicle routes, hunting and other recreational activities, and people can still do all these activities within monument boundaries.
“It’s unsurprising that disinformation peddlers like Ben Burr are still trying to mislead Americans about national monuments. It was Teddy Roosevelt himself who protected 800,000 acres at the Grand Canyon using the Antiquities Act in 1908,” Aaron Weiss, deputy director of the Center for Western Priorities, told the Desert Sun newspaper. “The law has always been used to protect imperiled landscapes across the West. Many of America’s most treasured national parks were first protected using the Antiquities Act, including Zion, Acadia, and Olympic national parks.”
TPPF senior attorney Matt Miller noted that the Clinton, Obama and Biden administrations have used the Antiquities Act to unilaterally close millions of acres of public land.
“Unfortunately, presidents will keep abusing the Antiquities Act until the courts stop them,” he said in a statement. “Congress intended national monument designations to be used to protect discrete sites and objects — like a particular cliff dwelling or ruin. … Either this is an abuse of the Antiquities Act or the Antiquities Act is itself an unconstitutional delegation of Congress’s power to the executive branch,” he said. “The Constitution entrusts Congress with these kinds of decisions and does not allow the legislative branch to abdicate this responsibility.”
TPPF attorney Anelise Powers added, “The earliest national monuments were between 160-1,000 acres, but now presidents are designating millions of acres at a time. It is abundantly clear that Congress never intended for the Antiquities Act to be used in this way, but that has not prevented the executive branch from using the Act as a vehicle to acquire extensive control over essentially all public lands,” she said in a statement. “For this reason, sitting members of the U.S. Supreme Court have indicated an interest in reviewing the Antiquities Act.”
In March, however, the U.S. Supreme Court rejected two cases challenging presidential authority to establish national monuments. Logging industry advocates and 15 Oregon counties had requested reviews of two lawsuits challenging the Obama-era expansion of the Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument.
In January the Supreme Court declined to hear a lawsuit by Republican Utah officials seeking control of federally managed lands.
But Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in 2021 that presidents may be abusing the Antiquities Act by ignoring a clause about designating the smallest area to feasibly manage. Roberts invited opponents of broad national monuments to test their legal arguments.
After reports surfaced in April indicating the Interior Department was considering Chuckwalla and other monuments for boundary reduction, local officials responded voiced support for the federal protections.
“I hope the Trump administration doesn’t alter Chuckwalla National Monument,” California Assemblyman Greg Wallis, R-Bermuda Dunes, said in a statement. “Chuckwalla is extremely popular across the political spectrum and was advocated for by a large, bipartisan coalition. Our local communities know that safeguarding our desert is good for the economy and is smart for the well-being of generations to come.”
Evan Trubee, a Palm Desert City Council member and owner of Big Wheel Tours, also called for the monument to remain intact.
“I own a small business that takes visitors out to experience offroading adventures in the Chuckwalla National Monument and on other desert lands,” Trubee said in a statement. “Protected public lands are our bread and butter. My business depends on these places, and they make our area a great place to live.
“Hundreds of business owners like myself advocated for Chuckwalla National Monument to be protected, and removing those protections would be deeply, deeply unpopular,” Trubee added. “There’s nothing partisan about it, it’s something our community really fought for.”
Many national monuments are also valuable to Indigenous tribes in the Southwest, including Chuckwalla, which the Fort Yuma Quechan Indian Tribe was instrumental in creating, and Grand Staircase-Escalante in Utah.
“The Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indians have understood for ages the significance of safeguarding this landscape for future generations,” tribe Chairman Joseph Mirelez said in a statement. “It is essential that the Chuckwalla National Monument remains protected; if these areas are lost and the natural resources vanish, our people today and those who come after us will be deprived of their traditional ways of life.”
Goldbeck, who said her organization includes over 1 million veterans and their family members, noted the World War II-era historical site located within the monument. Of Gen. George S. Patton’s Desert Training Center, Goldbeck said, “Military heritage sites are visible and special. We don’t have many World War II veterans left, so it’s important to preserve artifacts to memorialize their service for generations to come.”
In January, Blythe officials spoke against the Chuckwalla monument designation.
“The proposed boundaries severely restrict public access to a vast area of land that has long been vital to our community and regional economy,” Blythe Mayor Joseph DeConinck said in a statement. “We believe a more measured approach to the monument’s boundaries can preserve the environment while allowing continued access for activities like hunting, mining and outdoor recreation, which are crucial for Blythe’s residents and visitors alike.”
According to the city, “Stripping this land from public use under the guise of preservation could severely impact tourism and the economy of surrounding communities, like the city of Blythe. The community’s right to access and utilize these lands must be preserved.”
A copy of the lawsuit document is on the TPPF’s website.
Updated May 12, 2025, 8:16 a.m.
