ELR Citation: 51 ELR 20204
No(s). 3:20-cv-00195-SLG (D. Alaska Dec 3, 2021) (Gleason, J.)

A district court dismissed the state of Alaska's lawsuit against the Federal Subsistence Board (FSB) regarding the Board's authorization of a subsistence hunt for a southeast Alaska tribe. Alaska argued the FSB violated the APA, the Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation Act, and the Sunshine Act by delegating authority to local land managers to open emergency hunts in response to COVID-19-related food-security concerns, authorizing an emergency hunt, and adopting a temporary special action to close moose and caribou hunting on federal public lands in two game management units to non-federally qualified users. The court found that the Sunshine Act did not apply to the FSB, that the state's claims regarding the emergency hunt must be dismissed as moot, and that the FSB's decision to close the game management units to non-subsistence users was neither arbitrary nor capricious. It dismissed the suit.