Center for Biological Diversity v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a district court judgment upholding a downlisting rule promulgated by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife (FWS) in 2020 that changed the status of the American Burying Beetle under the Endangered Species Act from endangered to threatened. The FWS concluded that the beetle was not currently in danger of extinction because it faced “relatively low near-term risk of extinction” but that it was likely to become endangered within the foreseeable future (2040–2069) throughout all of its range as a result of increasing temperatures due to climate change and land use changes. The D.C. Circuit rejected the Center for Biological Diversity’s (CBD’s) contention that the downlisting was at odds with the statutory definitions of “endangered” and “threatened.” In addition, the D.C. Circuit found that the FWS’s determination that the beetle was not currently in danger of extinction was grounded in the record and reasonably and adequately explained. The court also found that CBD did not have standing to seek vacatur of a Section 4(d) rule establishing protections for the beetle because vacatur of the rule would not redress CBD member’s injury. Judge Pan dissented from decision to uphold the downlisting rule; she wrote that in her view the FWS did not adequately support the conclusion that climate change did not put the beetle in danger of extinction in the near term.