United States Tenth Circuit

In a State-Federal fight over the proper method of combating a strain of the disease brucellosis, which affects wild elk in a national refuge located in Wyoming, the question of whether the Fish and Wildlife Service acted in excess of its authority under the National Wildlife Refuge System Improvement Act of 1997 was remanded for full plenary review.

Appellate Information

• Decided 02/07/2002
• Published 02/07/2002

Judges

• BALDOCK, Circuit Judge., Before LUCERO, POLITZ, and BALDOCK, Circuit Judges.

Court

• United States Tenth Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Lynda G. Cook, Assistant Attorney General, (Gay Woodhouse, Attorney General, and Michael Dinnerstein, Assistant Attorney General, with her on the brief), Cheyenne, WY, for Plaintiffs-Appellants., Paul A. Lenzini of Donelan, Cleary, Wood & Maser, P.C., Washington, DC, filed an Amicus Curiae brief on behalf of International Association of Fish and Wildlife Agencies in Support of Plaintiffs-Appellants.


• For Appellees:
  
• Lisa E. Jones, Department of Justice, (Lois J. Schiffer, Assistant Attorney General, Environment & Natural Resource Division, Department of Justice;  Charles R. Shockey and Andrew C. Mergen, Department of Justice, Washington, DC;  David D. Freudenthal, United States Attorney, and Carol A. Statkus, Assistant United States Attorney, Cheyenne, WY;  and Debra Hecox, of Counsel, Office of the Regional Solicitor, Department of the Interior, Lakewood, CO, with her on the brief), Washington, DC, for Defendants-Appellees., James S. Angell, Earthjustice Legal Defense Fund, Bozeman, MT, for Intervenors-Appellees.