The Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear Utah's bid to gain control over millions of acres of federal land, dealing a blow to the state's efforts to assert greater authority over its natural resources.

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.

The Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up Utah’s lawsuit aimed at wresting control of more than 18 million acres of public land in the state from the federal government. In its lawsuit, filed in August,