Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhardt

Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Columbia challenging the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s (FWS's) failure to determine whether eight species of Caribbean skink warrant protection under the Endangered Species Act. The complaint alleged that skinks are rare lizards “endemic to a few islands in the Caribbean Sea and found nowhere else on earth” that are in “steep decline from threats including habitat destruction and degradation, human-introduced predators, climate change, and accelerating sea level rise.” CBD alleged that it had petitioned the FWS to list the skins in February 2014, that the FWS determined there was substantial scientific or commercial information indicating that listing may be warranted in 2016, and that the FWS had subsequently failed to make a listing determination.