Cite as: 529 U. S. 728 (2000)
Opinion of the Court
§ 315f (authorizing Secretary, "in his discretion, to examine and classify any lands . . . which are more valuable or suitable for the production of agricultural crops . . . or any other use than [grazing]"); §§ 1712, 1752(c) (authorizing renewal of permits "so long as the lands . . . remain available for domestic livestock grazing in accordance with land use plans" (emphasis added)). The Secretary has consistently reserved the authority to cancel or modify grazing permits accordingly. See supra, at 735-736 (collecting CFR citations). Given these well-established pre-1995 Secretarial powers to cancel, modify, or decline to renew individual permits, including the power to do so pursuant to the adoption of a land use plan, the ranchers' diminishment-of-security point is at best a matter of degree.
Third, the new definitional regulations by themselves do not automatically bring about a self-executing change that would significantly diminish the security of granted grazing privileges. The Department has said that the new definitions do "not cancel preference," and that any change is "merely a clarification of terminology." 60 Fed. Reg. 9922 (1995). It now assures us through the Solicitor General that the definitional changes "preserve all elements of preference" and "merely clarify the regulations within the statutory framework." See Brief in Opposition 13, 14.
The Secretary did consider making a more sweeping change by eliminating the concept of "suspended use"; a change that might have more reasonably prompted the ranchers' concerns. But after receiving comments, he changed his mind. See 59 Fed. Reg. 14323 (1994). The Department has instead said that "suspended" AUMs will
"continue to be recognized and have a priority for additional grazing use within the allotment. Suspended use provides an important accounting of past grazing use for the ranching community and is an insignificant administrative workload to the agency." Bureau of Land Man-
743
Page: Index Previous 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 NextLast modified: October 4, 2007