Derek Brown outlines his priorities as Utah's new attorney general

Estimated read time: 3-4 minutes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• Derek Brown, Utah's new attorney general, plans to continue litigation from his predecessor.
• He emphasizes transparency and will make his full calendar public to Utah residents.
• Brown prioritizes lawsuits against Meta and federal land control.

SALT LAKE CITY — As the newly inaugurated Utah attorney general, Derek Brown told members of the press on Thursday that he plans to continue all litigation initiated by his predecessor, former Attorney General Sean Reyes. However, he said, his position is subject to change.

Brown also said he would be transparent with the people of Utah, including making his full calendar public.

"We want people to know what it is we're doing. We want to be accessible. We want people to understand what it is that the office does" — a question Brown said he was asked most while on the campaign trail.

"My role as the attorney general is to defend the law."

During the press conference, he commented on a few pressing lawsuits filed by the state.

Utah vs. Meta

Brown said the state's lawsuits against social media companies, including Meta Platforms, are representative of a "critical issue" with which he is familiar and remains committed to moving forward. Utah is one of 42 states that have taken legal action against Meta.

In 2023, Utah Gov. Spencer J. Cox and then AG Reyes' lawsuit accused the social media giant of designing its multiple platforms to "trap" children and teens, which negatively impacts their mental health. They also alleged the company has misled the public about the risks of its platforms.

Brown said his office will continue "this really vital and important litigation because this is something that impacts the people of Utah and specifically our kids."

Utah vs. the US

Last August, the state of Utah filed a bill of complaint with the Supreme Court arguing that nearly half — 18.5 million acres — of the federally owned land in Utah is "unappropriated" and should be managed by the state.

The Supreme Court is expected to decide whether to take up the case by the end of January.

The state said the Bureau of Land Management receives "significant revenue by leasing those lands to private parties for activities such as oil and gas production, grazing and commercial filmmaking, and by selling timber and other valuable natural resources that the federal government retains for its own exploitation."

The state's case has received national attention, most recently in an op-ed in The New York Times, which described the lawsuit as "nothing less than a frontal assault on the long tradition of safeguarding these landscapes in trust for all Americans."

Brown responded to the article Thursday, saying that it misrepresented the lawsuit.

Brown served in the House of Representatives from 2010 to 2014, and he said control of federal lands in Utah was a topic of conversation then and has been since. He said it is a vital issue for counties with a lot of federal land within their boundaries.

The case is about "whether it is appropriate for the federal government to retain control over the unappropriated lands," he said. "I think it's an important issue, and there are seminal issues in our state's history that I think it's important and appropriate for a court to make a decision on, and this is one of them."

Prosecuting illegal immigration

On whether he would align with Cox on his support for President-elect Donald Trump's plan to deport migrants in the country illegally who have committed crimes, Brown said he would work with the federal government when needed, focusing on violent crimes against Utahns.

"My focus is going to be on ensuring that the law is followed, and when people break the law, that they are prosecuted," he said. "The focus has to be the violent criminals. And really, that is where the focus needs to be as our office."

"Utahns deserve peace of mind. They need to know that they feel safe and secure when they're in their homes, when they're out in the public."

Following his inauguration on Wednesday, Brown posted a video on social media saying he and his office would protect the people of Utah and that he would do so faithfully.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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Utah governmentUtahSalt Lake County

Emma Pitts

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