The Roseburg Area Chamber of Commerce in Oregon, which also serves businesses and others in the broader Douglas County in southern Oregon, is like many chambers of commerce found across America. It has a distinguished history of service to the businesses and people of southern Oregon, helping to foster strong economic opportunities and build strong communities. For the people of Roseburg and Douglas County, that means supporting a robust timber and wood-products industry.
Roseburg is the “Timber Capital of the Nation,” and 15 percent of Douglas County’s labor force works in timber and wood-products. Beyond this important industry, the communities love their public recreation, enjoying the beautiful Northwest outdoors with over fifty parks in the local system.
For the Chamber of Commerce, a sizeable part of its diverse membership includes timber, natural resource-based companies, wood-products shops, recreation and tourism companies, manufacturers, distributors, and so many others who rely upon and have been stewards of the local forestry ecosystem.
But, under authority he claimed to have under the so-called “Antiquities Act,” President Obama decided that the people and businesses of southern Oregon should be “left behind.” The Chamber will not stand by and let it happen. Neither will the National Federation of Independent Businesses, which is the Nation’s leading small-business association. We stand with the Chamber and NFIB, and we have filed briefs at the Supreme Court to make sure their voices are heard.
Case Background
In 1906, Congress passed the “Antiquities Act,” aimed at preserving specific and archaeologically significant southwest Tribal artifacts. In the law, Congress gave to the President of the United States the authority to declare historic landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other objects of historic or scientific interest on federal lands as national monuments.
However, such authority is subject to clear limits. Having limits is particularly important for how our anti-tyranny government is supposed to work. The designation of an area as a monument cuts off the public’s ability to use the lands covered by the designation. That is not a power that Congress wanted to give the chief executive without clear checks and balances.
Whatever the merits of protecting limited areas of historical significance are, the power given to the executive branch is dangerous and should be rarely used.
The Antiquities Act specifies that the president may fence off certain areas only by limiting the designation to the “smallest area compatible with proper care and management of the objects to be protected.” But that language has not slowed down the takeover of millions upon millions of acres in the West by bureaucrats in Washington, DC. Sadly, presidents have stretched the Act far beyond its intended meaning on thinner and thinner legal ice, to the point where presidents have been taking state-sized acres of land away from local control, without even consulting with local interests or explaining why they can do it.
Lame-Duck Tactics
In 2017—days before leaving office—President Obama invoked the Antiquities Act to add 48,000 acres of timberlands to an already-existing national monument in the name of protecting “biological diversity.” His actions and President Biden’s continued defense of them are not only questionable under the Antiquities Act, but actually violate an entirely different law as well.
In 1937, Congress passed the “Oregon and California Railroad and Coos Bay Wagon Road Grand Lands Act.” That mouthful piece of legislation, often called the O&C Act, reserved certain federal lands in Oregon for “permanent forest production,” mandating that “the timber thereon shall be sold, cut, and removed in conformity with the principle of sustained yield” timber production.”
The whole point of the O&C Act was to support local economies by requiring a sustained yield of timber, which would in turn promote the local economies, conservation, and recreation.
Perversely, by making the area a “monument” to prohibit logging, the president not only violated the existing law and devastated the industry that supports the local communities, he also directly harmed the so-called conservation and recreation interests he said he was promoting.
Join the Fight
Since 1977, MSLF has fought to protect private property rights, individual liberties, and economic freedom. MSLF is a nonprofit public interest legal foundation. We represent clients pro bono and receive no government funding. Make your 100% tax deductible contribution today and join the fight.
What’s at Stake
Losing access to O&C Act land is devastating for the Chamber’s members and NFIB’s members in southern Oregon. Without consistent access, timber harvest will diminish, leading to the loss of jobs in the area. The cascade effect will have serious negative effects upon the other industries that rely upon logging, and on the education, health, and safety institutions in southern Oregon.
When 15 percent of the labor force works in the industry, the president’s illegal actions condemn them to unemployment and local recession.
Mountain States is coming to the defense of the Chamber, NFIB, the people and businesses of southern Oregon, and small businesses everywhere who are under the heavy federal thumb. We are offering amicus curiae briefs at the US Supreme Court, asking the Court to review two separate federal cases that focus on this issue—American Forest Resource Council v. USA and Murphy Company v. Biden.
Our briefs show the Supreme Court justices that President Obama’s abuse of the Antiquities Act to override the O&C Act is not only unlawful, but also devastates the local economies. A presidential decree cannot repurpose vast swaths of land that is congressionally decreed for productive use and devastate the local institutions of vibrant communities.
Case Timeline
- January 2017: President Obama extended an existing “national monument” into O&C Act lands, prohibiting timber production in the new parts of the monument
- February 2017: Several different groups sued the president and his administration over the extension of the monument into O&C Act lands.
- September-October 2023: Various lawsuits over other O&C Act violations from as early as the Clinton Administration worked their way through the court system, separately becoming docketed at the Supreme Court.
- December 2023: Mountain States Legal Foundation, representing the Douglas County Chamber of Commerce and NFIB Legal Center, filed amicus curiae briefs against the federal government.
- March 2024: The Supreme Court declined to grant a petition for a writ of certiorari, and thereby refused to hear the lawsuits over O&C Act violations.
