Summary
Donald Trump’s pledge to rename Denali back to Mount McKinley has sparked widespread backlash, including from Indigenous Alaskans and Alaskan Republican lawmakers.
The Koyukon Athabascans, who have called the mountain Denali for centuries, consider the name sacred.
The Obama administration officially restored the Denali name in 2015 to honor Alaska Native heritage.
Polls show most Alaskans oppose the renaming, despite the state’s Republican majority.
Alaskan senators Murkowski and Sullivan criticized Trump’s move, while some, including McKinley descendants, support honoring the controversial 25th president despite his views on Native populations.
Basically- he has done it, but we’re not sure if he’s allowed to.
Trump issued an executive order directing the relevant party (the Board on Geographic Names, part of the Department of the Interior) to change the name back to Mt McKinley. Controlling the names of geographic landmarks is a power that Congress delegated to the BoGN, so that they didn’t have to hold a vote on every single item. The Unitary Executive theory posits that, since the president is the head of the executive branch, any power delegated to any part of the executive branch is ultimately under the control of the president.
If Congress cared more about their own institutional power instead of partisan power, they would rebuke the attempt and clarify that, no, they set up a process and deviations from that process will not be tolerated.
My take on the likely outcome - people will sue (not sure if lawsuits have been filed yet or not), it’ll work its way up through the courts, the judicial branch will rule that disagreements between political branches is outside the purview of the courts (basically saying that if Congress doesn’t like what’s happening, they have the power to change the laws, so it’s up to them), and, since Congress is controlled by R’s, the name change will stand.