Southwest Center For Biological Diversity v. United States Department Of Agriculture

314 F.3d 1060 SOUTHWEST CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY; Robin Silver, Dr., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE; United States Forest Service; Department of Interior, Defendants-Appellees. No. 00-17410. United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit. Argued and Submitted July 8, 2002. Filed December 23, 2002. Matthew P. Millea, Treon, Strick, Lucia & Aguirre, Phoenix, AZ, for the plaintiffs-appellants. Matthew M. Collette, Assistant United States Attorney, Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for the defendants-appellees. Appeal from the United States District Court for the District of Arizona; Stephen M. McNamee, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. CV-98-01022-SMM. Before: CANBY and RYMER, Circuit Judges, and BERTELSMAN, * Senior District Judge. OPINION CANBY, Circuit Judge. 1 The only issue in this appeal is whether § 207 of the National Parks Omnibus Management Act ("1998 Parks Act"), 16 U.S.C. § 5937 , which creates a statutory exemption from the Freedom of Information Act ("FOIA"), applies to the present case that was pending when that exemption was enacted. Congress expressed no clear intent on that question. Because we conclude…