Description: Challenge to government’s alleged failure to designate critical habitat for endangered turtle species.
-
Center for Biological Diversity v. Locke
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 10/13/2009 Settlement Agreement Download Court entered stipulated settlement agreement and order of dismissal. 05/28/2009 Complaint Complaint filed. The Center for Biological Diversity and other nonprofit environmental groups filed a complaint against the Secretary of Commerce and the National Marine Fisheries Service alleging violations of the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedure Act based on allegations that the habitat of the leatherhead and loggerhead sea turtles is being destroyed by climate change. In particular, the plaintiffs alleged that government defendants failed to make a timely determination on petitions that the groups had filed in 2007 to designate certain areas as “critical habitats” and the two species of sea turtles as endangered. In 2007, the government determined that the petition was warranted but failed to make a final determination within the statute’s mandatory 12-month period.