Yes, the board on Geographic Names can do it, have they?
Brad’s question is the last refuge of a man who just lost the statute and is now hiding behind the clock.
Brad: “Yes, the Board can do it, have they?”
The Executive Order signed yesterday does not pretend the Board is a separate sovereign,
Brad.
It directs the Secretary of the Interior, in coordination with the Board and consistent with 43 U.S.C. §§ 364–364f, to update the Geographic Names Information System within 30 days.
That is the same statutory hook Sally Jewell used in 2015 when she issued a Secretarial Order because the Board had sat on Alaska’s petition for forty years, B
rad.
Obama did not wait for the Board to hold a solemn séance and “decide.”
The Secretary exercised the authority Congress already gave her,
Brad.
The Great Satan Trump’s order tells the current Secretary to do the same thing on a 30-day clock.
So the answer to “have they?” is: they have been instructed, the clock is running, and the database will be updated.
That is how federal geographic naming actually works,
Brad.
It is how Denali happened
, Brad.
It is how Gulf of America happened,
Brad.
It is how this will happen,
Brad.
If your position is that a name change is illegitimate until the Board has physically clicked “save” on a Tuesday, then Jewell’s 2015 order was equally illegitimate for the first few weeks as well.
You did not make that argument then,
Brad. You are making it now because the authority belongs to the "wrong" man,
Brad.
Brad, cite the provision that says an Executive Order directing a Cabinet secretary to use an authority Congress already conferred on that secretary is void until the Board has held a meeting.
I’ll wait.
In 2015, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell, with Obama’s explicit endorsement, used the same federal naming authority to strip the official name Mount McKinley (in federal use since 1917) and restore the Koyukon Athabascan name
Denali. The White House billed it as honoring Alaska Native heritage and reversing “cultural imperialism.” Same Interior Department mechanism. Same Board on Geographic Names. Same “federal usage only” limitation. Different president, therefore different.
I don't recall seeing any of your posts questioning that,
Brad. I suspect that's because there weren't any.