Wilderness Society v. U.S. Department of Interior

The Wilderness Society filed a FOIA lawsuit in the federal district court for the District of Columbia seeking to compel responses to 21 FOIA requests it submitted since April 2017 for documents related to the Department of the Interior’s implementation of President Trump’s Executive Order 13783, “Promoting Energy Independence and Economic Growth.” The Wilderness Society alleged that it had requested numerous reports and related documents from DOI, including reports required as part of a “Climate Change Policy Review,” in which the Secretary of the Interior ordered office and bureau heads to provide all actions adopted or under development that had been rescinded by Executive Order 13783 as well as drafts of revised or substituted actions for review by the Secretary. The Wilderness Society asserted that DOI constructively denied its FOIA requests and withheld information, failed to abide by statutory deadlines, failed to conduct adequate searches, failed to inform of receipt and provide tracking numbers, failed to provide estimated dates for completion of action on requests or appeals, and engaged in a pattern of unlawful conduct or failure to provide estimated dates.