The ruling, one of three administration setbacks this week, restores Obama-era protections to 128 million acres of federal waters.
The decision applies to 98 percent of the Arctic Ocean, but covers only undersea canyons in the Atlantic.
The decision by U.S. District Judge Sharon Gleason is the third legal setback this week to Trump’s energy and environmental policies. The judge, who was appointed to the federal bench by President Barack Obama in 2012, also blocked on Friday a land swap the Interior Department arranged that would pave the way for constructing a road through the wilderness in a major National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska.
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- Presidents have the power under federal law to remove certain lands from development but cannot revoke those removals, Gleason said.