The Trump Administration has undertaken to eliminate or  dramatically reduce National Monument protections adopted by Presidents of both parties going back to the Roosevelts.  The Bears Ears Monument in Utah, to be managed by a remarkable coalition of Native American and other interests, has taken one of the largest hits.  The policy and legal questions involve Native American rights, and the authority of the President himself. 

• Jonathan Wood, Attorney, Pacific Legal Foundation                                       Jonathan Wood is an attorney at Pacific Legal Foundation’s (PLF) DC Center, where he litigates environmental, property rights, and constitutional cases. In addition to his work for PLF, Jonathan is an Adjunct Fellow with the Property and Environment Research Center, a member of the Executive Board for the Federalist Society’s Environmental Law and Property Rights Practice Group, and publishes FREEcology, a blog on libertarian environmentalism.

• Mark Squillace, Professor, University of Colorado Law School 
  Professor Mark Squillace joined the University of Colorado Law School faculty in 2005. He also served as the Director of the Natural Resources Law Center at Colorado from 2005-2013. Before joining the Colorado law faculty, Professor Squillace taught at the University of Toledo College of Law, where he was named the Charles Fornoff Professor of Law and Values, and at the University of Wyoming College of Law, where he served a three-year term as the Winston S. Howard Professor of Law. He is a former Fulbright scholar and the author or co-author of numerous articles and books on natural resources and environmental law, including most recently, Environmental Decisionmaking for the 21st Century (2016). In 2000, Professor Squillace took leave from law teaching to serve as Special Assistant to the Solicitor at the U.S. Department of the Interior. In that capacity he worked directly with the Secretary of the Interior, Bruce Babbitt, on a wide range of legal and policy issues, including the designation of national monuments under the Antiquities Act.
• Michael Margherita (moderator)                                 Michael Margherita is an attorney in the state of Colorado and author who has written several articles related to environmental law. This past year he published two articles, which discuss presidential power under the Antiquities Act and conservation agreements pursuant to the Endangered Species Act. Originally from St. Louis, Michael pursued his undergraduate degree at Lehigh University. There, he participated in their Division I Wrestling program and graduated with a Dual B.A. in International Relations & Globalization Studies. Michael then attended Tulane University Law School where he was a managing editor of the Tulane Journal of International and Comparative Law and a student attorney in the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic. Currently, Michael works as a Senior Legal Analyst for Development International and assess legal compliance with Section 54 of the U.K. Modern Slavery Act of 2015, a provision concerned with corporate public disclosure of anti-slavery measures in private sector supply chains.