On August 20, 2024, the state of Utah filed a lawsuit against the federal government with the U.S. Supreme Court seeking control of 18.5 million acres of national public land. The Supreme Court has not yet decided whether it will hear the case.
Utah lawmakers have a habit of throwing millions of taxpayer dollars at frivolous efforts to seize and sell off national public lands. The state of Utah’s latest land grab lawsuit demanding control of 18.5 million acres of public land in the state is another misguided attempt to do so and could end up costing taxpayers well over $20 million dollars.
So far, Utah lawmakers have spent more than $500,000 on a single Supreme Court brief, while approving more than $2.6 million for the public relations campaign on the lawsuit.
Lawsuit spending
It’s hard to track exactly how much money has been appropriated for the upcoming legal battle. House Bill 3002, passed in the Utah legislature’s 2024 June special session, appropriated $6.7 million to the Federal Overreach Restricted Account in FY2024 (July 1, 2023 to June 30, 2024). $3 million of that came from the Department of Government Operations’ Public Lands Litigation Program and $3.7 million from the Attorney General’s Contract Attorneys account. HB3002 also appropriated $1.675 million to the Attorney General’s Contract Attorneys account in FY2025 (July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025) from the Federal Overreach Restricted Account.
As of the end of FY2024, the Federal Overreach Restricted Account had a balance of $6.7 million. $4.5 million disappeared from that account in 2022. We don’t know if that money was spent on litigation or was transferred to another account.
The state of Utah hired Virginia-based law firm Clement and Murphy to prepare the complaint filed by the state with the Supreme Court. The state has paid the law firm $518,000 since 2023. According to documents CWP received in response to a GRAMA request, Clement and Murphy’s contract with the state to write the SCOTUS filing dates to February 2023. (Clement and Murphy is also representing the Seven County Infrastructure Coalition in the Uinta Basin Rail case, but a spokesperson for the AG’s office confirmed to the Salt Lake Tribune that this $518,000 is all for the land grab complaint.) The legal brief is 74 pages long (not including appendices). That’s $7,000 per page.
According to documents CWP received from the Utah Attorney General’s office in response to a GRAMA request, Clement and Murphy’s hourly rates range from $2350/hour for Lead Attorney Paul Clement to $1100/hour for Junior Attorney Joesph DeMott.
Additionally, Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes has said publicly that the state legislature has appropriated about $20 million in total for the legal challenge.
“What we’ve spent currently or plan to spend is, I don’t have an exact number, but it’s a fraction,” Reyes said, telling reporters the state will save money by filing the lawsuit with the Supreme Court because it won’t have to litigate in federal district courts.
We don’t know when the additional $13.3 million Reyes mentioned ($6.7 million + $13.3 million = $20 million) was appropriated or what account it is in. But keep in mind that if the Supreme Court passes on hearing the lawsuit, the state is likely to refile their case in the lower federal courts, no doubt costing Utah taxpayers millions of dollars on litigation in an attempt to get the case in front of the Supreme Court.
Public relations spending
House Bill 3002 appropriated $2.142 million to the Department of Natural Resources’ Executive Director as a one-time appropriation from the Federal Overreach Restricted Account in FY2025 (July 1, 2024 to June 30, 2025). HB3002 also appropriated $1.5 million to the Department of Natural Resources’ Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office (PLPCO) in FY2025. That money also came from the Federal Overreach Restricted Account. That totals $3.64 million in funding transferred from the Federal Overreach Restricted Account to the Department of Natural Resources, which is running the PR campaign around the lawsuit.
According to documents CWP received from the Utah Department of Natural Resources in response to a GRAMA request, we know that in February 2024, PLPCO entered into a $500,000 contract with communications firm Penna Powers for five years. Records show that the state amended its contract with Penna Powers in July 2024 from $500,000 to $2,642,000 million.
According to documents CWP received from the Utah Department of Natural Resources in response to a GRAMA request, we know that PLPCO planned to spend at least $1,350,000 on a public relations campaign connected to the lawsuit between July and November 2024.
PLPCO hired Utah-based public relations firm Penna Powers to handle the campaign. According to a July 2024 Penna Powers and PLPCO media plan, PLPCO planned to spend $150,000 in paid media in Utah, $750,000 on the Utah launch, and $450,000 in a Washington, D.C. launch targeting policy and legal advisors.
The following details were available in the media plan:
Phase 1 – Utah ($150,000)*
- $20,000 to “KSL,” including a sitewide display and native article, between July and August 2024.
- $20,000 to “Deseret News,” including sitewide display/newsletters and native article, between July and August 2024.
- $25,000 to “SL Tribune,” including sitewide display/newsletters and native article, between July and August 2024.
- $60,000 to “paid social,” including Facebook and Instagram, between July and early September.
- $25,000 to “paid search” between July and early September 2024.
*Penna Powers media plan left out “paid search” cost from phase one total spend, so total is wrong for Phase 1 in PP media plan. They report $125,000, but it’s actually $150,000.
Phase 2 – Utah ($750,000)
- $150,000 to “Outdoor interstate billboards (8-10)” between August and November 2024.
- $250,000 to “local broadcast TV stations” between August and October 2024.
- $80,000 to “connected TV / YouTube” between August and October 2024.
- $80,000 to “local radio stations” between August and October 2024.
- $50,000 to “podcasts + audio streaming” between August and October 2024.
- $75,000 to “Meta (FB/IG), Reddit, Twitter” between August and October 2024.
- $65,000 to “local publishers + sponsored articles” between August and October 2024.
Phase 3 – Washington, DC ($450,000)
- $65,125 to “The Dispatch,” including “Podcasts: Advisory Opinions, The Remnant, The Dispatch” and “newsletter sponsorships, between September and October 2024.
- $12,750 to “Honestly with Bari Weiss” in September 2024.
- $62,500 to “Wall Street Journal,” including “Policy Impact Bundle: Politics & Policy Newsletter buyout, Potomac Watch podcast, Politics Front Buyout, Contextual targeting; RON AV” between September and October 2024.
- $35,295 to a Washington Post Capitol Hill Wrap in September 2024.
- $70,590 to “seamless ad, ROS display” with Washington Post between September and October 2024.
- $7,060 to the back cover of the November issue of National Review.
- $47,500 to a native article and DC DMA homepage takeover with National Review during unspecified dates.
- $30,000 to “geo-fencing government buildings,” including “display” and “video” between September and October 2024.
- $60,000 to “programmatic audience targeting,” including “display, video” between September and October 2024.
- $50,000 to “social media” including “Meta (FG/IG), X” [sic] between September and October 2024.
- $9,180 to “paid search,” including “using keywords from press release” between September and October 2024.
Past spending on similar and related land seizure efforts
Over the past decade, taxpayers in Utah have spent at least $3.95 million on public land seizure efforts, not including the latest land grab lawsuit and public relations campaign.
- Since 2014, Utah counties have paid over $650,000 to the American Lands Council, a nonprofit started by Utah State Rep. Ken Ivory, that specializes in federal land seizure efforts.
- In 2015, Utah hired a team of lawyers to study the feasibility of filing a lawsuit to overturn federal ownership of public lands. The report alone cost taxpayers $500,000.
- The state hired New Orleans-based law firm Davillier Law Group to complete the analysis.
- Davillier estimated that the total cost to bring a case against the federal government would be $13,819,000.
- Based on Davillier’s findings, the Utah State Commission on Stewardship of Public Lands voted in 2015 to prepare a legal complaint against the federal government.
- The Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands hired Davillier Law Group in 2015 to build the legal case for land seizure and hired Logan-based think tank Strata Policy to develop advocacy materials. The state also retained the services of Salt Lake City lobbying firm Foxley & Pignanelli, pollster Y2 Analytics and Nuffer Smith Public Relations of San Francisco.
- Rep. Keven Stratton, then-chairman of the Commission for the Stewardship of Public Lands, acknowledged the state paid $900,000 to Davillier and the other contractors, including $347,681 on “relations services.”
- Davillier and the consultants appear to have spent that money on costs outside the scope of their contracts. One lawyer spent $3,100 at Salt Lake City’s finest hotels and regularly flew first class, courtesy of Utah taxpayers.
- In 2016 and 2017, the Utah Legislature paid the Foundation for Integrated Resource Management (FIRM) $400,000 to file public lands lawsuits against the federal government on behalf of counties, however the group never did.
- The Utah legislature went on to appropriate $300,000 in 2019 to a new research institute developed by FIRM, known as the Rural Policy and Public Lands Institute.
- In 2016 and 2017, taxpayers in San Juan County paid nearly $500,000 to law firm Davillier to lobby the Trump administration for Bears Ears monument reductions.
- As of 2020, state lawmakers had appropriated $700,000 to tech firm Geomancer to develop software to put a price tag on Utah’s public lands to argue that they should be privatized.
- Rep. Ken Ivory quit his job as a state legislator to take a job with Geomancer after voting to appropriate money to the company, raising ethical concerns.
Public opinion
State land seizure efforts are NOT supported by the majority of Utahns or Westerners. In Colorado College’s 2016 State of the Rockies Project poll, 58 percent of voters across the West say they opposed efforts to turn management of public lands over to the states. In Utah, 47 percent of voters opposed these efforts, while 41 percent supported them. Finally, Westerners are not fed up with federal land management agencies, and instead believe that they are doing a good job. As seen in data from Colorado College’s 2014 poll, Western voters approve of the work that these agencies are doing.
Google drive with GRAMA documents
Featured image: Don Ramey Logan; Utah Sign during RAAM 2015 by D Ramey Logan.jpg from Wikimedia Commons
