Cal. Sea Urchin Comm’n v. Bean

Plaintiffs filed suit alleging that the FWS violated its statutory authority under Public Law 99-625 by terminating a translocation program for the southern sea otter. The district court dismissed the complaint, concluding that it constituted a facial challenge to a 1987 regulation and was thus untimely. The court concluded that the operative agency action challenged is the 2012 program termination, and therefore plaintiffs’ 2013 challenge is timely. The court held only that plaintiffs may challenge FWS’s termination of the program within six years of the decision to terminate the program, and plaintiffs were not required to bring suit within six years of the 1987 rulemaking espousing the authority to terminate the program. To hold otherwise would require plaintiffs to have filed suit nearly a decade before FWS took the action that caused their injury. Accordingly, the court reversed and remanded. The district court on remand should decide if there is merit to plaintiffs’ position that FWS was without Congressional authority to terminate the translocation program. View "Cal. Sea Urchin Comm'n v. Bean" on Justia Law