Ecological Rights Foundation v. United States Environmental Protection Agency

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 8 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 9

ECOLOGICAL RIGHTS FOUNDATION,

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

11 Plaintiffs,

ORDER GRANTING

12 v. MOTION TO TRANSFER

13 UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL

PROTECTION AGENCY,

14 Defendant. 15 16 I. INTRODUCTION 17 In June 2019, the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) published a 18 rule updating the processes and guidelines by which it would manage Freedom of Information Act 19 (“FOIA”) requests. Organizational plaintiffs Ecological Rights Foundation (“EcoRights”) and Our 20 Children’s Earth Foundation (“OCE”) quickly brought this action averring that the new rule 21 violates various provisions of the FOIA and the Administrative Procedure Act (“APA”). Within 22 days, other plaintiffs had also brought litigation challenging the rule under similar statutory 23 provisions in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia (“D.D.C.”). The EPA 24 now requests, pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1404(a), that the present…