Louisiana v. Biden

On August 17, 2022, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a nationwide preliminary injunction barring the Biden administration from implementing a “Pause” on new oil and gas leases on public lands and in offshore waters. The Fifth Circuit found that the injunction’s terms lacked the specificity required by Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 65(d).

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The district court in Louisiana issued a permanent injunction barring the federal defendants from implementing the “Pause” or “Stop” on new oil and gas leases. The district court found that the portion of President Biden’s executive order directing that agencies implement the pause/stop was beyond the President’s authority and violated the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Mineral Leasing Act. The court also granted summary judgment to the plaintiff states on their claims under the Administrative Procedure Act that the pause/stop was contrary to law and arbitrary and capricious, and that the defendants violated notice and comment requirements. The district court agreed with the government defendants that it did not have jurisdiction to review the pause/stop of lease sales that occurred after the states filed their lawsuit or of lease sales in non-plaintiff states.

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