Interior Secretary Haaland is “not aware” her department is suing a minor league baseball team

 WASHINGTON, DC - Today, former Secretary of the Interior and current Congressman Ryan Zinke questioned current Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland in a House Appropriations Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing about the Department’s predatory litigation against the Range Riders, Kalispell’s Pioneer League baseball team.

Last year, the DOI solicitor’s office sent a letter to the Glacier Range Riders alleging the team’s logo violated trademark rights belonging to the National Park Service (NPS) and that the team’s use of the logo would cause “harm or damage to the NPS,” despite the U.S. Patent office’s two rulings deciding the team was not in violation. 

In the hearing where Secretary Haaland had just asked for a funding increase in the 2025 Interior Appropriations budget, Haaland said she was “not aware of anything with the Range Riders” or the predatory lawsuit her department led that could cost a local business more than $500,000 to defend themselves.  

“The Interior Department suing a family-owned minor league baseball team is the worst case of federal overreach and predatory litigation by the government I have ever seen,” said Rep. Zinke. “This is why people outside the beltway don’t trust the bureaucrats inside the beltway. I can tell you that if I was Secretary and this came across my desk, I’d fire the lawyer who thought it was a good use of tax dollars. Now a small business is forced to spend half a million dollars defending themselves against a frivolous and predatory lawsuit that has no merit and has been thrown out twice by the Patent and Trademark Office. The Secretary either has no idea what’s going on in her own department or is allowing the abuse to happen. Either way, not good.” 

Watch the hearing here.

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