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Judge rules for Advocates of the West, against BLM in FOIA case From Advocates for the West
Dear Friends,
On September 13, 2010, the
District Court of Idaho
granted Advocates for the West a
victory in an important case under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA),
and ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to disclose to the public basic
information on its grazing program - including the names of livestock
permittees authorized to grazing the public lands.
For the past 10 years or so, BLM has repeatedly
refused to disclose the names of ranchers it allows to graze private livestock
on your public lands across the west. BLM claimed that
disclosing this basic information would cause an unwarranted invasion of
privacy - even though these ranchers are operating on your public lands.
And without this information, the public was unable to determine who grazed
public lands, on which allotments, and with how many livestock.
In 2009, Advocates sued the BLM, claiming that it
was violating FOIA by withholding this information, and Advocates argued that
the public interest in BLM's grazing program outweighed any normal privacy
interests. On September 13, 2010,
the District Court of Idaho
agreed, and held that there was "substantial public interest in
understanding the scope of the grazing and rangeland program, particularly in
light of the environmental impacts associated with grazing and the amount of
tax dollars spent on the grazing program itself." This case
is an important victory limiting BLM's ability to hide information from the
public.
Advocates' Senior Staff Attorney Todd C. Tucci
handled this case representing WildEarth Guardians and Western Watersheds Project. We would
like to thank everyone involved in this case and Mark Salvo of WildEarth
Guardians in particular for all his tireless work on this case.
Read the Judge's Order Here.
Thank you!
Todd C. Tucci, Senior Staff Attorney
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