Sierra Club v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service

The Sierra Club challenged the determination of the Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) in response to its petition to revise the critical habitat for the leatherback sea turtle, claiming that the FWS’s decision to delay any revision was arbitrary and capricious. It also alleged that the defendants had unlawfully delayed in designating additional critical habitat for the turtles. One of the claims in the Sierra Club’s petition was that “threats on the nesting beach are substantial and that global climate change is exacerbating the situation.” The court held that the FWS’s determination was unreviewable because the applicable statutes (the Endangered Species Act and the Administrative Procedure Act) provided no manageable standard to evaluate the FWS’s exercise of discretion.