Trump can keep secret his legal reasoning for reducing Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, judge says

Boise • The U.S. government does not have to turn over documents to an environmental law firm about the legal arguments for President Donald Trump’s decision to shrink national monuments, a judge ruled.

Boise, Idaho-based firm Advocates for the West had sued for 12 documents withheld from a public records request related to Trump’s decision to reduce two sprawling monuments in Utah. Trump also is considering scaling back other monuments.

The group contends that the documents may justify why former presidents made monuments as large as they did and thus undercut Trump’s order in December to shrink Bears Ears and Grand-Staircase Escalante national monuments.