Montana Environmental Information Center v. United States Bureau of Land Management

MEMORANDUM

Appellants appeal from the district court’s grant of summary judgment against them in their procedural challenge to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management’s decision to sell oil and gas leases in Montana. At issue is whether the district court correctly concluded that Appellants have not shown a concrete and redressable injury sufficient to establish standing. As the facts are known to the parties, we repeat them only as necessary to explain our decision.

To establish standing, Appellants must show that they: (1) are under actual or imminent threat of suffering a concrete and particularized injury, (2) which is fairly traceable to the challenged action, and (3) which is likely to be prevented or redressed by a favorable judicial decision. Summers v. Earth Island Inst, 555 U.S. 488, 493 , 129 S.Ct. 1142 , 173 L.Ed.2d 1 (2009). In their procedural challenge, once Appellants have shown actual injury, “the causation and redressability requirements are relaxed.” W. Watersheds Project v. Kraayenbrink, 632 F.3d 472 , 485 (9th Cir.2011) (internal quotation marks omitted).

I

The recreational and aesthetic interests asserted by Appellants’ members may establish actual injury to…