Center for Biological Diversity, v. Debra Anne Haaland (Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior); Martha Williams (Directors of the U.S. FWS; State of Wyoming; State of Idaho; Wyoming Stock Growers Assoc.; et al.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service (FWS) correctly denied the Center for Biological Diversity’s petition for rulemaking (PFR) seeking to expand the FWS grizzly bear recovery plan. The court decided that a recovery plan is not an agency “rule” that may be amended through the PFR process, and that even if it was, FWS refusal to grant the PFR does not constitute a “final agency action” that may be challenged in court.

[To accompany Federal Court Case Law Update "Ninth Circuit Rules that Grizzly Bear Recovery Plan Does Not Constitute a “Rule” that May Be Challenged in Court" from Brooks Animal Law Digest Issue No. 174.]