The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected Utah's lawsuit seeking control of 18.5 million acres of federal land. Why it matters: State officials put on a costly campaign of TV ads and other marketing, to encourage SCOTUS to take up the case.

The Supreme Court is turning back a push by Utah to wrest control of vast areas of public land from the federal government.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected a lawsuit by Utah that argued the federal government was unconstitutionally holding onto vast, unreserved swathes of the Republican-led state's territory comprising more than a third of the land within its borders.

According to a brief Idaho Attorney General Raúl Labrador filed with the U.S. Supreme Court, 9 million acres of Idaho land managed by the Bureau of Land Management could be affected.

The U.S. Supreme Court has opted not to hear a lawsuit brought by the State of Utah, which alleged the federal government's ownership of large parts of the state is unconstitutional. The decision marks a win for conservation advocates.

Utah's public lands lawsuit against the federal government has failed. Praise be. The US Supreme Court told the state, along with the 14 other states that signed onto it, to kick rocks as the nation's top court declined to even hear the lawsuit in its chambers.