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.

Utah filed its lawsuit against the United States government last August. The state argued that it is deprived of more than one-third of the land within its border, deeming the amount of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management “unconstitutional” and a federal policing of power.

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

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,

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 U.S. Supreme Court decided not to take up Utah's public lands lawsuit, but those for and against the case believe the argument isn't over.

The U.S. Supreme Court denied a petition from former Utah gubernatorial candidate Phil Lyman, who sought to challenge the state's primary election process