HELENA, MT – The Chief U.S. District judge in Montana has removed the Bureau of Land Management’s Director, William Perry Pendley, from exercising any authority as the department’s top official.
According to a press release from Montana Governor Steve Bullock, Chief District Judge Brain Morris decision declared that William Perry Pendley served unlawfully as the acting director of the BLM for 424 days. The Court enjoined William Perry Pendley from exercising authority of BLM Director, barring William Perry Pendley from continuing to serve as the acting director of the Bureau.
Additionally, the Court enjoined Interior Secretary David Bernhardt from unlawfully delegating the authority of the BLM director.
Pendley had been heading the conservative Mountain States Legal Foundation in Colorado when he joined the BLM as its deputy director for programs and policy in July 2019. Because the agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director since Trump took office, Pendley has been exercising the authority of the directorship the whole time. Seen by conservation groups as a violation of the Vacancies Reform Act, the arrangement is the subject of a lawsuit.
Pendley had been publicly nominated by Trump to direct the land bureau in June. But the nomination was withdrawn earlier this month after the confirmation process threatened to become contentious, potentially disrupting key U.S. senate races in Montana.
But Pendley continued to hang on to the post, under an arrangement that Pendley himself set up months ago. In a May 22 order, Pendley made his own position, deputy director, the bureau’s top post while the director’s office is vacant.
On July 20, Governor Bullock filed a lawsuit to enjoin William Perry Pendley from continuing to exercise the authority of acting director at BLM in violation of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and the U.S. Constitution. The Constitution’s Appointments Clause requires that the President nominate, and that the Senate confirm, the heads of significant federal agencies—a process that the Supreme Court has referred to as a “critical structural safeguard” of democracy.
On August 20, Governor Bullock filed a motion for summary judgement asking for expedited review of the case as William Perry Pendley remained acting director even after his nomination was withdrawn, in direct contravention to the United States Constitution and Federal Vacancies Reform Act.
“William Perry Pendley is breaking the law, and at stake are over 27 million acres of public lands in Montana,” Governor Bullock said. “Even after his nomination in the Senate was withdrawn, Pendley continues to serve as acting director of the BLM in direct violation of the United States Constitution.”
The Bureau of Land Management Montana/Dakotas manages about 8.3 million acres of public lands for multiple use and about 47.1 million acres of federal mineral estate in Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota.
Another Trump appointee from Montana, U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke resigned that position in 2018 because of multiple probes tied to his real estate dealings in his home state of Montana (including a land deal Zinke struck with the chairman of oil services giant Halliburton in his hometown of Whitefish, Mont.), posing a possible conflict of interest, and his conduct in office. He was the first Montanan since statehood to occupy a Cabinet position.
