ELR Citation: 53 ELR 20158
No(s). 21-791 (TJK) (D.D.C. Sep 30, 2023) (Kelly, J.)

A district court denied an environmental group's motion for summary judgment in a challenge to FWS' 2019 decision to reclassify the American burying beetle under the ESA from endangered to threatened. The group argued the Service violated the ESA by downlisting the beetle based on inadequate data and by issuing a §4(d) rule that failed to conserve the beetle's population, and that the downlisting was arbitrary and capricious. The court found the group did not identify any data that the Service withheld, and that its attempt to show the rule would not conserve the beetle was based only on contrary interpretations of evidence the Service considered. It further found that downlisting was rational and supported by the record because the Service's interpretation of the ESA was at least permissible and thus entitled to deference, and because the group did not identify any flaws in the Service's consideration of the evidence to suggest it arbitrarily weighed or failed to consider evidence that the beetle faced a risk of extinction sooner than expected. It denied summary judgment for the group, and granted FWS' cross-motion.