Center for Biological Diversity v. Haaland

Filing Date: 2020
Case Categories:
Principal Laws:
Administrative Procedure Act (APA), Endangered Species Act (ESA)
Description: Lawsuit challenging the withdrawal of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's proposed rule to list the North American wolverine in the contiguous United States as a threatened distinct population segment.
  • Center for Biological Diversity v. Haaland
    Docket number(s): 9:20-cv-00181
    Court/Admin Entity: D. Mont.
    Case Documents:
    Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary
    05/26/2022 Opinion and Order Download Motion for voluntary remand granted and 2020 withdrawal vacated. Montana Federal Court Vacated Withdrawal of Proposal to List Wolverine as Threatened in Contiguous U.S.. The federal district court for the District of Montana granted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s motion for voluntary remand of a challenge to the agency’s October 2020 withdrawal of a 2013 proposal to list wolverines living in the contiguous United States as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The court, however, vacated the withdrawal, rejecting the FWS’s request that it be left in place. The court found that the seriousness of the withdrawal’s deficiencies weighed in favor of vacatur and that the FWS did not show that the disruptive consequences outweighed the benefits of vacatur. The FWS requested remand to reevaluate the withdrawal in light of the Ninth Circuit’s 2021 decision concerning the meaning of “foreseeable future” and in light of new studies that “undercut the agency’s reliance on Canadian wolverines to establish connectivity, genetic diversity, and population density.” The court—which previously remanded a 2014 withdrawal of the listing proposal for reevaluation of climate change and other threats to the wolverine—ordered the FWS to submit a new final listing determination for publication in the Federal Register within 18 months.
    09/15/2021 Order Download Motion to intervene by snowmobile recreation groups and counties within Montana and Idaho denied.
    03/24/2021 Order Download Idaho's motion to intervene granted.
    03/12/2021 Motion to Intervene Download Memorandum of law filed by State of Idaho in support of motion to intervene as defendant.
    12/14/2020 Complaint Download Complaint filed.
  • WildEarth Guardians v. Bernhardt
    Docket number(s): 9:20-cv-00183
    Court/Admin Entity: D. Mont.
    Case Documents:
    Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary
    12/14/2020 Complaint Download Complaint filed.