Appalachian Voices v. EPA

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a district court order dismissing a putative class action brought by grantees under the Inflation Reduction Act’s (IRA’s) Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant program to challenge the termination of all grants awarded under the program. The D.C. Circuit found that the district court erred by reaching the merits of the plaintiffs’ constitutional claims without first assessing the jurisdictional issue of whether the cases was mooted by Congress’s rescission of the “unobligated balances of amounts made available to carry out” the IRA provision establishing the Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant program. The D.C. Circuit vacated the dismissal order in full, including the district court’s determination that it lacked jurisdiction over the plaintiffs’ Administrative Procedure Act claims because the Tucker Act precluded district court jurisdiction over the plaintiffs’ “essentially” contractual claims. The D.C. Circuit concluded that since a decision on mootness could render review of the Tucker Act issue unnecessary, it was “appropriate to leave that issue for another day.” The D.C. Circuit remanded the case to the district court for further proceedings.