Trump administration defends Obama-era marine national monument—no, really!

The federal government reaffirmed the legality of a 5,000-square-mile national monument in the Atlantic Ocean in federal court this week. The Department of Justice filed a motion to dismiss a lawsuit brought by fishermen that argued President Obama did not have the authority to create the Northeast Canyon and Seamounts Marine National Monument. (He does. It’s called the federal Antiquities Act.) The first of its kind in the Atlantic Ocean, the monument is home to remarkable biodiversity, extinct underwater volcanoes, and three deep sea canyons. And, just like our public lands under threat, it deserves to be saved.