Description: Challenge to the reclassification of the American burying beetle from “endangered” to “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act.
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Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service
Case Documents:
Filing Date Type File Action Taken Summary 05/31/2022 Amicus Brief Download Proposed amicus brief filed by American Stewards of Liberty et al. in support of federal defendants' cross-motion for summary judgment. 05/10/2022 Motion for Summary Judgment Download Memorandum of points and authorities filed in support of defendants' opposition to plaintiff's motion for summary judgment and cross-motion for summary judgment. 03/25/2021 Complaint Download Complaint filed. Lawsuit Cited Climate Change Threat in Challenge to Reclassification of Beetle from “Endangered” to “Threatened”. Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a lawsuit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in federal court in the District of Columbia challenging the reclassification of the American burying beetle from “endangered” to “threatened” under the Endangered Species Act. CBD alleged that the reclassification “eliminates key substantive protections” while the species faces the “same dire threats” it faced when it was listed in 1989, and that the species was now “at even greater risk of extinction due to climate change.” The complaint alleged that the beetle was at most risk from climate change in the Southern Plains due to increased average soil temperatures that will make large areas of potential habitat uninhabitable, and that there were also threats to other geographical populations, including the New England population, in the longer term. The complaint asserted claims under the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedure Act.