How Much Is Utah’s Public Lands Lawsuit and PR Campaign Costing Taxpayers? • Idaho Capital Sun

The state is relying on so-called original jurisdiction, which allows states to petition directly to the U.S. Supreme Court in certain cases rather than first going to lower courts.

Utah files ambitious lawsuit to take control of 18.5 million acres of federal public land

And in an attempt to get there, the attorney general’s office has paid at least $475,000 to the law firm Clement & Murphy since June 2023. The law firm is described by Attorney General Sean Reyes as “the preeminent Supreme Court advocates of our time.” According to several attorneys and legal publications, its hourly rates are among the highest in the country.

His senior attorney, Paul Clement, bills the state $2,350 an hour; Erin Murphy charges $1,850 per hour; young lawyers earn between $1,100 and $1,350 an hour; and paralegals charge up to $460 per hour.

In one invoice, the law firm billed the state for 4.5 hours of work, which netted taxpayers $3,826.

“Paul Clement is the best Supreme Court clerk in America,” said Daniel Burton, general counsel for the Utah Attorney General’s Office. “I think it’s money well spent. We didn’t want to do this without making sure we crossed our T’s and dotted our I’s.”

Burton said the state followed a regular proposal submission process as required by state law and had multiple bidders from multiple law firms – ultimately choosing Clement & Murphy.

“Yes, he has his hourly rate, but we think it is valuable if we want to look at this question properly. We want to make sure we do this right,” Burton said.

That money was appropriated for public lands litigation by Utah lawmakers, who appropriated $3 million for the state’s Public Lands Litigation Program during a special session in 2024. And when the state announced the lawsuit in August, Reyes said lawmakers had allocated a total of $20 million to the lawsuit, although he told reporters he expected to spend a “fraction” of that.

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Burton said the state likely will know in January whether the U.S. Supreme Court will take up the case unless one of the parties requests an extension. If the court agrees to hear Utah’s case, oral arguments would take place sometime in the spring.

If the Supreme Court decides not to hear the case, the state will likely file an appeal in federal district court, according to Utah Gov. Spencer Cox.

The state is doing two things: the lawsuit and a public relations campaign that includes radio and television ads, billboards and a website. Much of the advertising will be completed this fall, said Redge Johnson, PLPCO director. But the state will maintain some sort of public awareness campaign, he said.

“It is very important to inform the public that they are losing access to public lands. We’ll see what the Legislature thinks about it and what they want to do in terms of funding,” Johnson said.

Records show that as of March 2024, PLPCO spent at least $616,000 on marketing agency Penna Powers for its “Stand for our Land” campaign.

The contract with Penna Powers ends in February 2029 and amounts to $2,142,000 in state funds that the Legislature allocated with HB3002 during a special session in June. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Walt Brooks, R-St. George deposited that $2 million-plus into the state’s Federal Overreach Restricted Account to cover “costs associated with combating federal overreach on public lands in Utah.”

Records show the state paid nearly $55,000 to local news outlets — including about $18,402 to The Salt Lake Tribune, $15,605 to Deseret News Online and about $19,050 to Deseret Digital Media, which owns KSL .com and the KSL classifieds operates. Because the campaign is ongoing, these numbers have likely increased since records were shared with Utah News Dispatch.

That contract was signed in February before the special session and expires in 2029. The goal is to “strategically help the state of Utah tell the story around the challenges and opportunities associated with public lands management, natural resources, multiple-use practices, and other concepts.”

According to the contract, Penna Powers “could be required to recruit high-quality national and regional journalists for individual or small-group familiarization tours.” The goal of these tours is to bring journalists to Utah’s robust public lands and natural resources, as well as those associated with them “To learn about the challenges and opportunities associated with managing these public lands.”

And records show how hard the state is trying to sell its lawsuit outside its borders.

The “Washington DC launch,” detailed in Penna Powers’ media plan, features a $65,000 campaign with The Dispatch, a conservative media outlet; more than $12,000 for “Honestly with Bari Weiss,” a podcast by the former New York Times opinion writer; more than $100,000 to The Washington Post for advertising; and $62,000 to the Wall Street Journal.

12 states support Utah’s lawsuit to take over millions of acres of federally controlled land

PLPCO’s Johnson said the campaign’s costs pale in comparison to what the state often spends on the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) process.

“While the state sometimes has to spend millions of dollars on access to these public lands and our interests, many people don’t realize that the state spends tens of millions of dollars on the NEPA process alone,” he said.

But some public lands advocates are taking a much different tone. Aaron Weiss, executive director of the conservation nonprofit Center for Western Priorities, called the marketing campaign “disingenuous.”

Weiss’ organization opposed Utah’s lawsuit from the start, calling it an attempted “land grab.” His criticism of the lawsuit also extends to the media campaign.

“There is a word for when the state tries to convince the public of a political position – propaganda. I have no doubt that this is the right word for this PR campaign,” he said. “Part of this, of course, is aimed at convincing Utah voters that their money is not going to be thrown in a dumpster and set on fire, which is actually the case.”

Weiss doesn’t believe the U.S. Supreme Court will even hear the case – for him, the amount of money the government spends on advertising just underlines this.

“If you think you have a rock-solid case, then you will spend more money on your lawyers than on your PR campaign. Instead, Utah does it the other way around,” he said.

Like the Idaho Capital Sun, Utah News Dispatch is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network that is a 501c(3) charity supported by grants and a coalition of donors. Utah News Dispatch maintains editorial independence. If you have any questions, please contact Editor McKenzie Romero: (email protected). Follow Utah News Dispatch on Facebook and X.