Lawsuit Seeks To Overturn Chuckwalla National Monument

MECCA, CA — A lawsuit filed last week seeks to dissolve a newly established monument guarding some 600,000 acres of wilderness from development in the Inland Empire.

The lawsuit, filed by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, alleges former President Joe Biden did not have the authority to designate the Chuckwalla National Monument.

Chuckwalla — named after the desert lizard native to the Sonoran and Mojave regions — is south of Joshua Tree National Park and encompasses land sacred to Indigenous tribes. The area also includes a historic trade route once used by 19th-century gold prospectors and served as a World War II training ground for Gen. George Patton’s desert troops.

Matt Miller, senior attorney on the case, called the monument "unconstitutional."

"Congress intended national monument designations to be used to protect discrete sites and objects — like a particular cliff dwelling or ruin. Presidents Clinton, Obama and, now, Biden, have instead used the Act to close millions of acres of public land at the stroke of a pen," he said in a statement.

Biden established the monument as one of his last presidential actions, using the Antiquities Act, which has been used nearly 300 times by presidents since 1906.

"Either this is an abuse of the Antiquities Act or the Antiquities Act is itself an unconstitutional delegation of Congress’s power to the executive branch," said the group's senior attorney Matt Miller.

The monument, the largest protected area in the Colorado Desert just south of Joshua Tree National Park, prohibits drilling, mining and other energy or industrial activities within its boundaries.

Dan Torongo, represented by attorneys for the Texas-based group, is seeking to overturn the monument designation, citing his family's decades-long mining operations in the area and his plans to continue mining for financial gain.

“My family has utilized the Small Miners Act of 1872 to claim and maintain mineral rights in the Chuckwalla Mountains since 1981; we have built a treasure trove of great memories in the process,” Torongo said. "This all ended on January 14, 2025, when a lame duck president chose to steal mineral rights from citizens like me."

The Protect California Deserts Coalition, which consists of Native American tribes and cities across Riverside County, along with hundreds of businesses and scientists, responded to the lawsuit in an email to The Press Enterprise:

“There is broad and deep bipartisan support for Chuckwalla locally and across the state of California,” the statement says, adding that the group “is deeply committed to ensuring the permanent protection of the National Monument.”

Cities backing the effort to safeguard the monument include Banning, Cathedral City, Desert Hot Springs, Indian Wells, Indio, La Quinta, Palm Desert, and Palm Springs.

In mid-March, reports surfaced that President Donald Trump wanted to rescind the creation of the protected area.

Although a pending action on the monument was deleted from a White House fact sheet soon after it was posted, Coachella Valley leaders vowed to fight any attempt to rescind it.

"I hope the Trump administration doesn't alter Chuckwalla National Monument. Chuckwalla is extremely popular across the political spectrum and was advocated for by a large, bipartisan coalition. Our local communities know that safeguarding our desert is good for the economy and is smart for the well-being of generations to come," said Assemblyman Greg Wallis, R-Bermuda Dunes.

Palm Desert City Councilman Evan Turbee, who owns Big Wheel Tours, said his business, which takes visitors out to experience off-roading adventures in Chuckwalla, depends on the protected land.

"Hundreds of business owners like myself advocated for Chuckwalla National Monument to be protected and removing those protections would be deeply, deeply unpopular," he said. "There is nothing partisan about it — it's something our community really fought for."

City News Service contributed to this report.