Opinion ID: 761771
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: PLC's Challenge

Text: 23 Soon after the Secretary's proposed regulations took effect on August 21, 1995, PLC filed suit in the United States District Court for the District of Wyoming, challenging the facial validity of several of the new regulations. PLC later substituted a petition for review, seeking declaratory and injunctive relief on the same grounds stated in its complaint. PLC challenged most of the regulations on the grounds that the Secretary had exceeded his statutory authority, lacked a reasoned basis for departing from previous rules, or had failed to provide adequate responses to public comments. PLC also challenged two of the new regulations on constitutional grounds and asserted that the Final Environmental Impact Statement violated the National Environmental Policy Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 4321 et seq. 24 On June 13, 1996, the district court entered an Order on Petition for Review, holding in favor of PLC on four of the challenged regulations. See Public Lands Council v. Department of Interior, 929 F.Supp. 1436 (D.Wyo.1996). The district court characterized the permitted use rule as ending longstanding recognition of grazing preferences adjudicated following enactment of the TGA, thereby depriving permittees of their statutory right to graze predictable numbers of stock. As such, the court held the permitted use rule violates the TGA's mandate that grazing privileges recognized and acknowledged shall be adequately safeguarded. Id. at 1440-41. In addition, the district court interpreted the TGA to require that range improvements be owned by the permittees who construct them, and held that the 1995 range improvements regulation violates this requirement. See id. at 1442-43. Finally, the district court held that eliminating the requirement that permit applicants be engaged in the livestock business violates the TGA's mandate that preference be given to such persons, see id. at 1444-45; and that the Secretary exceeded his authority under the TGA and FLPMA and lacked a reasoned basis in authorizing BLM to issue conservation use permits, see id. at 1443-44. The district court held in favor of the government on the remaining challenges to other parts of the new regulations, and the PLC does not contest these rulings on appeal.