The state of Montana on Thursday filed a motion for summary judgment in its federal court case against de facto Bureau of Land Management chief William Perry Pendley, seeking to have a judge declare Pendley’s post unconstitutional.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in July 2019 delegated the duties of land bureau director to Pendley, the bureau’s deputy director whose Senate nomination for bureau director was withdrawn by the White House on Aug. 15 after weeks of public outcry.
Pendley, who spent decades as an oil industry attorney who opposed federal ownership of public land, remains in the post despite his failed ...