United States Fish and Wildlife Serv. v. Sierra Club, Inc.
Headline: Court allows agencies to withhold internal draft environmental analyses under FOIA, protecting draft biological opinions and reducing public access to endangered-species assessments.
Holding: The Court held that the deliberative process privilege protects in-house draft biological opinions that are predecisional and deliberative, even if they reflect the agencies’ last stated views about a proposed rule.
- Lets agencies withhold internal draft analyses of proposed rules.
- Reduces immediate public access to draft endangered-species assessments.
- Requires courts to review segregability of withheld documents on remand.
Summary
Background
In 2011 the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rules for cooling water intake structures. The Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service (the Services) consulted and staff prepared draft biological opinions in December 2013 finding the rule likely to jeopardize protected species. Decisionmakers did not approve or send those drafts to the EPA. After the EPA revised its proposal in March 2014, the Services issued a joint final "no jeopardy" opinion, and the Sierra Club sued to obtain the earlier drafts under FOIA.
Reasoning
The Court asked whether FOIA’s deliberative process privilege protects in-house draft biological opinions that ended up being the Services’ last stated views about the 2013 proposal. The Court held the privilege covers documents that are both predecisional and deliberative. It emphasized that drafts remain protected when decisionmakers did not adopt or circulate them, and that practical effects (for example, prompting an agency to change course) do not by themselves make a draft final.
Real world impact
The ruling lets agencies withhold internal draft analyses that are part of their decisionmaking, limiting immediate public access to some draft environmental assessments. The decision concerns FOIA disclosure, not the environmental merits, and the case returns for courts to review what, if anything, must be released. Courts must also review whether any nonexempt parts can be released.
Dissents or concurrances
Justice Breyer dissented, arguing some draft biological opinions function like final agency views and often trigger agency responses, so those documents deserve closer factual review and possible disclosure.
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