Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Department of Commerce

Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit in federal district court in the District of Columbia seeking to compel four federal agencies to produce records related to President Trump’s Executive Order (EO) 14225, “Immediate Expansion of American Timber Production,” in which he directed “all relevant agencies” to eliminate “all undue delays within their respective permitting processes related to timber production” and to “suspend, revise, or rescind all existing regulations, orders, guidance documents, policies, settlements, consent orders, and other agency actions that impose an undue burden on timber production.” CBD filed FOIA requests for records about how agencies were implementing these directives. CBD alleged that the agencies’ failures to disclose responsive information and records precluded CBD “from gaining a full understanding of important information about plans to implement the EO, and rules and orders that currently protect air and water, wildlife and nature, public lands, the climate, and vulnerable communities, and if and how such plans will be carried out and impl[e]mented.”