United States Eleventh Circuit

In an action challenging a grant of certain "Clean Water Act" ("CWA") mining permits by the Army Corps of Engineers in Florida, summary judgment for plaintiffs is vacated and remanded where the district court: 1) appeared to have predetermined the answer to the ultimate issue based on its own conclusions that mining in the area at issue was a bad thing; 2) analyzed the permitting process with that answer in mind regardless of what the agency concluded and what evidence supported the agency's conclusion; and 3) therefore applied the improper standard of review under the Administrative Procedure Act.

Appellate Information

• Decided 05/09/2008
• Published 05/09/2008

Judges

• DUBINA, Circuit Judge:, Before DUBINA and KRAVITCH, Circuit Judges, and COOGLER, District Judge.

Court

• United States Eleventh Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• Henry C. Whitaker, Theodore B. Olson, Raymond B. Ludwiszewski, Peter E. Seley, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, LLP, Rafe Petersen, Holland & Knight, Washington, DC, Michael Nachwalter, Elizabeth Brooks Honkonen, Kenny, Nachwalter, Seymour, Arnold, Critchlow & Spector, Elliot H. Scherker, Edward G. Guedes, Daniel M. Samson, Marlene K. Silverman, Kerri L. Barsh, Greenberg Traurig, P.A., Richard J. Ovelman, Franklin G. Burt, Jason Patrick Kairalla, Jorden Burt, LLP, Douglas M. Halsey, Thomas Neal McAliley, Angela D. Daker, White & Case, LLP, Miami, FL, John A. DeVault, III, Bedell, Dittmar, DeVault & Pillans, P.A., Jacksonville, FL, Daniel H. Thompson, Berger, Singerman, P.A., Tallahassee, FL, Martin J. Alexander, Holland & Knight, West Palm Beach, FL, for Appellants., Gregory G. Costas, FL. Dept. of Transp., Tallahassee, FL, Vincent F. Vaccarella, Jordan Matthew Keusch, Vincent F. Vaccarella, P.A., Miami, FL, Michael A. Piscitelli, Vezina, Lawrence & Piscitelli, P.A., Ft. Lauderdale, FL, Ellen J. Durkee, U.S. Dept. of Justice, ENRD, App. Section, Washington, DC, for Amici Curiae.


• For Appellees:
  
• Paul J. Schwiep, Coffey Burlington, LLP, Miami, FL, Eric Robert Glitzenstein, Meyer & Glitzenstein, Washington, DC, for Appellees.