It is unclear if the August case from Utah, which contends that roughly 18.5 million acres of federally owned public land ought to be turned over to the state, will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court.
However, this hasn’t stopped the state from spending over $1 million on a comprehensive public relations campaign that includes hundreds of thousands of dollars for media advertising in publications like the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and KSL.com, as well as a law firm whose top lawyer charges more than $2,300 per hour.
According to invoice and receipt documents Utah News Dispatch was able to get through an open records request, as of mid-September, the Public Lands Policy Coordinating Office, or PLPCO, and the state’s Attorney General’s Office had spent close to $1.1 million on marketing and legal fees.
The state filed a petition in August asking the U.S. Supreme Court to rule on whether the BLM can continue to hold onto land indefinitely without formally designating it. Idaho has also joined the lawsuit. About 18.5 million acres of BLM land in Utah are undesignated, in contrast to national parks, national monuments, and national forests. The state refers to it as unappropriated land.
In a recent brief submitted to the Supreme Court, the U.S. Department of Justice deemed Utah’s complaint, which contends that the BLM’s perpetual ownership of that unappropriated land is unconstitutional, to be without substance.
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What is the cost to Utah taxpayers of the public lands lawsuit?
The state is using a legal doctrine known as “original jurisdiction,” which permits states to petition the US Supreme Court directly in some circumstances rather than first going through lower courts.
Since June 2023, the Attorney General’s Office has paid the law firm Clement & Murphy at least $475,000 in an effort to reach that goal. According to a number of lawyers and legal periodicals, the law firm charges some of the highest hourly fees in the nation, and Attorney General Sean Reyes has called them the leading Supreme Court advocates of our day.
Paul Clement, its most senior lawyer, charges the state $2,350 per hour; Erin Murphy charges $1,850; junior lawyers earn between $1,100 and $1,350; and paralegals charge up to $460 per hour.
The law business charged the state $3,826 for 4.5 hours of work in a single billing.
According to Daniel Burton, general counsel for the Utah Attorney General’s Office, Paul Clement is the nation’s top Supreme Court practitioner. That money, in my opinion, was wisely spent. In order to avoid making mistakes, we wanted to make sure that everything was done correctly.
According to Burton, as mandated by state law, the state held a routine call for proposals, attracted bids from many legal firms, and eventually chose Clement & Murphy.
Yes, he does have an hourly rate, but we believe it’s important to consider this topic carefully. Burton stated, “We want to make sure we’re doing this right.”
Legislators in Utah set aside that much for public lands litigation when they approved $3 million for the state’s Public Lands Litigation Program during a special session in 2024. Additionally, Reyes told reporters that he expects to spend a fraction of the $20 million that the Legislature had set aside for the legal fight when the state announced the lawsuit in August.
Unless one of the parties requests an extension, Burton said the state will probably know in January if the case will be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Oral arguments are scheduled for sometime in the spring, assuming the court accepts Utah’s case.
Utah Governor Spencer Cox stated that the state would probably file a complaint with a federal district court if the high court declined to hear the issue.
The Stand for our Land public relations campaign is launched by the State of Utah.
In addition to the lawsuit, the state is launching a public relations campaign that includes billboards, radio and television commercials, and a website. According to PLPCO director Redge Johnson, a large portion of the advertising will conclude this fall. However, he stated that the state will continue to run some sort of public awareness campaign.
It is rather crucial to inform the public that they will no longer have access to public lands. Johnson stated, “We’ll see how the Legislature feels about it and what they want to do in terms of funding.”
For its Stand for our Land campaign, which began in March 2024, PLPCO has reportedly spent at least $616,000 on the marketing firm Penna Powers.
The Legislature allotted $2,142,000 in state cash during a special session in June with HB3002, and the contract with Penna Powers expires in February 2029. Rep. Walt Brooks, a Republican from St. George, sponsored the bill, which allocated the more than $2 million to the state’s Federal Overreach Restricted Account for expenses related to preventing federal overreach on Utah’s public lands.
The Salt Lake Tribune received approximately $18,402 from the state, Deseret News Online received $15,605, and Deseret Digital Media, which operates KSL.com and the KSL classifieds, received almost $19,050, according to records. These payments total over $55,000. Those figures have probably gone up after the records were made available to Utah News Dispatch because the campaign is still going on.
The agreement, which expires in 2029, was inked in February, prior to the special session. It aims to strategically assist the State of Utah in communicating the potential and difficulties associated with managing natural resources, public lands, multiple-use techniques, and other ideas.
The contract states that Penna Powers may be obliged to hire elite national and local journalists for small-group or individual familiarization visits. These excursions aim to introduce journalists to Utah’s abundant natural resources and public lands, as well as the opportunities and problems that come with managing those lands.
Additionally, documents demonstrate the extent to which the state is attempting to market its litigation abroad.
According to Penna Powers’ media plan, the campaign for its Washington, D.C. launch includes $65,000 with the conservative media outlet The Dispatch, over $12,000 with the podcast Honestly with Bari Weiss, which is hosted by the former New York Times opinion writer, over $100,000 with the Washington Post for advertising, and $62,000 with The Wall Street Journal.
According to Johnson of PLPCO, the campaign’s expenses are insignificant when compared to the amount of money the state frequently spends on the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, process.
Many people are unaware of the tens of millions of dollars the state spends on the NEPA process alone, he said, even though the state must occasionally spend millions of dollars on access and our interests on these public lands.
However, some proponents of public lands have a quite different stance. The executive director of the nonprofit organization dedicated to conservation, Center for Western Priorities, Aaron Weiss, referred to the marketing campaign as deceptive.
Since the beginning, the Weiss organization has opposed Utah’s lawsuit, claiming it is an attempt to seize land. He also criticizes the media effort in addition to the lawsuit.
Propaganda is the term for when the government attempts to persuade the people of a political viewpoint. “I’m positive that’s the right term to use for this public relations campaign,” he remarked. Naturally, a portion of it is intended to persuade Utah voters that their money isn’t being thrown in a dumpster and burned, which is exactly what’s taking place.
The amount of money the state is spending on advertising only serves to confirm Weiss’s belief that the U.S. Supreme Court would not even consider his case.
You should spend more money on your lawyers than on your public relations effort if you believe you have a strong legal case. According to him, Utah is doing it the other way around.
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