Protect Our Parks, Inc. v. Buttigieg

Issues: (1) Whether the Obama Presidential Center project, which includes four structures constructed over 19.3 acres of Frederick Law Olmsted’s Jackson Park, located next to Lake Michigan, is a major federal action under the federal environmental laws because the roadwork required due to the destruction and alteration of its internal roadwork, necessitated by that construction, is federally funded; (2) whether a federal court can properly defer to a federal agency’s narrow, unsupported and highly deferential definition of a major project and thus escape review under this court’s recent decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo and its well-established decision in Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe; (3) whether the federal reviews of the center relied upon below employed illegal segmentation to allow large portions of the undertaking to escape federal review under the federal environmental laws; (4) whether the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit erred in deferring to the federal agencies that either ignored or belittled the destruction of hundreds of trees, migratory bird habitats, and other key environmental effects in declining to require an environmental impact statement; (5) whether the 7th Circuit erred in affirming the trial court’s denial of the plaintiffs’ only motion for leave to amend pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 15, which was filed before any discovery began, before any schedule was set, and before any trial date was set; and (6) whether the 7th Circuit’s refusal to reverse the dismissal under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure Rule 12(b)(6) of state law claims violated both Illinois law and this court’s precedents dealing with the duty of loyalty, duty of care, and nondelegation and public-trust doctrines.