U.S. on ending forest case
on Jun 10, 2013 at 12:38 pm
The Justice Department has joined in asking the Supreme Court to cast off a case that had been granted for review next Term, but only on condition that the entire case be scuttled in lower courts. In a response filed Friday in U.S. Forest Service v. Pacific Rivers Council (12-623), the Department said the Court should end that case because the Pacific Rivers Council has given up its claim. This blog discussed the PRC’s abandonment of the case in this post last week.
After the PRC won a decision in the Ninth Circuit Court on the government’s duties to justify plans to reduce wild fires in national forests, the Forest Service took the case to the Supreme Court, and review was granted. In the meantime, however, a federal judge went ahead with further proceedings in the case, and issued a partial order to require the Forest Service to take further steps. The Justice Department, in supporting the PRC motion to order the case dismissed as moot, said that the federal judge’s order also ought to be set aside, along with the Ninth Circuit decision.
The Court is scheduled to consider the status of the case at its private Conference on Thursday, according to the Court’s electronic docket.
