That’s what happened after Franklin D. Roosevelt established the Jackson Hole National Monument in 1943 on land fronting the magnificent Teton mountain range in Wyoming. But no president has ever attempted to rescind a monument established by a predecessor, and it is unclear whether a president even has the power to do so. Instead, like Congress, presidents have often used the act to expand monuments (and on occasion, to shrink them). In 2006, President George W. Bush established a huge marine national monument in the waters of the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands. That is the incomparable legacy of the Antiquities Act, and its necessity is as vital today as it ever was.

Source: New York Times March 31, 2017 22:30 UTC