Center for Biological Diversity v. Bernhardt

The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia to compel the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to issue a finding as to whether listing the emperor penguin under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is warranted. CBD petitioned for the listing of the emperor penguin in 2011 and asserted the FWS violated the ESA and the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to make a 12-month finding in response to the petition. The complaint alleged that the emperor penguins “face a potentially insurmountable threat: anthropogenic climate change,” and cited a 2019 study that documented a “catastrophic breeding failure” during the past three years in the world’s second-largest colony following record low sea-ice extent and early sea-ice breakup as well as a 2017 study projecting a global population decline of 40–99% by the century’s end.