Ecological Rights Foundation v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA

ECOLOGICAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION,

et al., Case No. 19-cv-04242-RS

Plaintiffs,

ORDER GRANTING

v. MOTION TO TRANSFER

UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTECTION AGENCY,

14 Defendant. 15 I. INTRODUCTION In June 2019, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published a rule updating the processes and guidelines by which it would manage Freedom of Information Act (“FOIA”) requests. Organizational plaintiffs Ecological Rights Foundation (“EcoRights”) and Our Children’s Earth Foundation (“OCE”) quickly brought this action averring that the new rule violates various provisions of the FOIA and the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). Within days, other plaintiffs had also brought litigation challenging the rule under similar statutory provisions in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (“D.D.C.”). The EPA now requests, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), that the present…