Today, Utah Attorney General Sean D. Reyes and Utah Solicitor General Melissa Holyoak promised a group at the National Farm Bureau Convention to continue to legally resist federal overregulation of public land use, saying that “farmer’s values are American values.”
Prime examples of overreach that attracts scrutiny from both farmers and the public include the Biden Administration’s unconstitutional designation of National Monuments. In Southern Utah, millions of acres have been seized by the government in violation of the intent of the Antiquities Act, General Reyes said. The Utah Attorney General’s office is currently taking the issue up on behalf of the state in court.
“This is a significant part of what we do every day,” AG Reyes said. “We’re constantly working to rein in the federal administrative state, overreach, and executive orders in many areas of our lives. State attorneys general are the last line of defense in many of these areas.”
“Our fight is not just about esoteric court cases. It’s about your families, your children, and grandchildren,” SG Holyoak said. “In the Monuments case, the government says it wants to preserve treasures. We agree with that. But we don’t agree that the government should wall off millions of acres of surrounding land to achieve that goal.”
General Reyes also pointed out issues that the Utah Attorney General’s has been taking on, including its insulin lawsuit, opioid litigation and settlement, gun rights and social media litigation as examples of the legal work the office is taking on.
Thousands of Farm Bureau members from around the nation gathered at the Salt Palace Convention Center for the annual convention. Both AG Reyes and SG Holyoak mentioned that their grandparents were involved in agriculture and that their family heritage plays a role in their values as adults.
