By Tony Semerad | Salt Lake Tribune
A federal judge has turned down an attempt by the Trump administration to dismiss legal challenges to its 2017 decision to cut the size of Bear Ears National Monument in southern Utah.
In a three-page ruling issued Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan rejected the administration’s arguments that claims in three separate lawsuits over the Bears Ears decision, now combined into one, should be thrown out of court.
The ruling essentially means legal actions brought by Utah’s five American Indian tribes and several environmental, business and academic groups over the monument can proceed for now.
