Ninth Circuit Judges Clash in Denial to Rehear Tribal Land Sale

A Ninth Circuit decision will severely restrict federal land management, seven Republican-appointed judges on the appeals court said, criticizing a decision not to revisit a ruling that blocked the US from exchanging land once belonging to the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.

“The decision will severely hamper the federal government’s ability to administer its lands, including its ability to sell or exchange lands to promote economic development or sustain jobs in local communities,” Judge Eric C. Tung, an appointee of President Donald Trump, said in a dissenting opinion Tuesday. “This outcome could not have possibly been Congress’s aim.”

The disagreement between ...