Colorado Wildlife Federation On January 13, 2025, the US Supreme Court rejected Utah’s request to bring a lawsuit to take over ownership and control of the 29,000 square miles of BLM-managed public lands in the state. Although the Supreme Court did not provide its rationale, University of Colorado law professor Mark Squillace stated that the 1894 enabling legislation that permitted Utah to become a state “included a promise that it wouldn’t make any claim on federal land.”