ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20089
No(s). 20-35318 (9th Cir. May 17, 2021)

The Ninth Circuit reversed summary judgment for FWS in a challenge to the Service's rule requiring that affected states receive a 30-day notice of intent to file a petition to list an endangered species. An environmental group argued that FWS violated the ESA by impermissibly requiring the 30-day notice and refusing to issue a finding on its petition to list the Pryor Mountain wild horse population within 90 days, and sought to have the rule vacated. A district court concluded the rule's pre-file notice requirement was a permissible construction of the ESA, and granted summary judgment for the Service. The appellate court found that the rule created a procedural hurdle for the group that did not comport with the ESA—by allowing FWS to consider factors it was not intended to consider during the 90-day finding and running afoul of the Act's plain directive that the Service's initial assessment be based on the petition's contents—and thus concluded that FWS' denial of the group's petition because it did not comply with the rule could not be sustained. It therefore reversed the district court's grant of summary judgment for FWS and remanded to the district court to enter judgment for the group.