The United States Supreme Court held the United States Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club case in 2021. This case was on the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). In 2017 the Sierra Club sued the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for not sharing documents of biological opinions that lead to a new rule that allowed the Environmental Protective Agency (EPA) to go through with a project that could have possibly affected wildlife and specifically endangered species in. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service approved the Environmental Protective Agency’s new rule in 2014, however they originally denied a different rule for the same project in 2011.
The United States Government could be said to work well because it does not let any one person or group of people hold too much power. Our system works off checks and balances where all people and groups in government can check one another if they feel the other is breaking laws or going against the constitution.
There are three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative branch consists of the Senate and House of Representatives. These two groups of people make up congress. The textbook says, “Most laws in the country are made by congress and the state legislatures” (Barbour and Wright P. 329). Congress meets in the U.S. Capital where they are in charge of making federal laws. The people in congress get to be voted into office by the American people. The legislative branch is also in charge of declaring war and determining tax policies.
The executive branch consists of the President of the United States and his advisors. The main job of the executive branch is to enforce the laws that the legislative branch makes. However, the executive branch has the power to do many other things. The executive branch or president has the power to give pardons, make executive orders, and nominate supreme court judges. As a way to keep the legislative branch in check the President can also veto laws or bills that congress makes. In return congress can overide that veto with a two-thirds vote in both the House and Senate. This constant back and forth of power is referred to as checks and balances and is what has helped keep the United States Government alive.
The textbook says, “Not only is the U.S. system adversarial, but it is also litigious” (Barbour and Wright P. 326). This is where the judicial branch comes in. The job of the judicial branch is to interpret the laws and how they should be enforced by the executive branch. The court system facilitates cases where rulings are made on whether laws were broken. The court system goes all the way up to the highest court, which is the Supreme Court. The judicial branch is another part of our check and balances as they have the power to determine if the legislative branch made a law that goes against the constitution.
This case could be said to have started all the way back in 1973 in the legislative branch when congress passed the Endangered Species Act. The Endangered Species Act prohibits the import, export, and taking of fish, wildlife, and plants that are listed as threatened or endangered species. In 2011 the Environmental Protective Agency (EPA) wrote plans to install new cooling systems that would take water from nearby sources to cool industrial buildings. Because fish could be killed by the new intake system the Environmental Protective Agency (EPA) had to get permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service.
The original plans for the cooling system that was proposed by the Environmental Protective Agency (EPA) were rejected by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. After waiting for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to give revisions to plan, the Environmental Protective Agency (EPA) decided to instead submit a very different plan to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service in 2014. Both the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service gave an approval of “no jeopardy” to the EPA.
The Sierra club is an environmental organization started by John Muir in 1892 in San Francisco, California. The Sierra Club had inquiries into the background of this approval of the Environmental Protective Agency (EPA). They were trying to access documents about this approval by using the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). The Freedom of Information Act was passed by congress in 1967. This act requires that the public authorities publish certain information about their activities. It also gives the public the right to request documents and information from the government. Both Endangered Species Act and the Freedom of Information Act are ways that the legislative branch was involved in this case.
The executive branch also has an important role in this case. The executive branch is in charge of enforcing the laws. Without a strong executive branch the laws that are made in the legislative branch such as the Endangered Species Act and the Freedom of Information Act could not be upheld. The president which is part of the executive branch is also in charge of nominating the candidates for supreme court justices. Without the executive branch nominating qualified individuals for the supreme court, we would not have judges to rule on cases such as the United States Fish and Wildlife Service V. Sierra Club.
The judicial branch is of course extremely involved in any legal case in the United States of America. This case started in the United States District court for the Northern District of California. The textbook says, “The lowest level of the federal judiciary hierarchy consist of ninety-four U.S. federal district courts.” (Barbour and Wright P. 334). The Sierra Club sued the United States Fish and Wildlife Service for access to the biological draft opinions on the disapproval of the Environmental Protective Agency’s original water-cooling plan from 2011-2013. The Sierra Club was interested in why the original plan was rejected by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service.
In 2017 the district court sided with the Sierra Club and ordered the release of the requested documents. The judicial branch upheld this decision in the United State court of appeals for the Ninth Circuit in 2018. This led to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and National Marine Fisheries Service petitioning for the case to be heard by the Supreme court. They wanted to know if the documents could be covered under the deliberative process privilege. Deliberative process privilege protects information showing how government agencies make a final decision. The goal of deliberative process privilege is to keep communications confidential under certain situations that could be a risk to the government’s safety.
In 2021 the Supreme Court made a seven to two vote in favor of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. This reversed the decision of the ninth circuits ruling. The supreme court argued that the biological opinions were protected under the deliberative process privilege. They also said these documents were drafts of a draft, not a draft of a final decision.
The fact that all three branches of government were involved in this case at some point in time is proof that our government is well balanced. The control that the different branches have over each other represent the even checks of power that our government has. Without these checks and balances our government would not be as functional or fair. The key to this is the separation of who makes the laws, who enforces the laws, and who rules on the laws.
Our system is very effective in dealing with issues. We have a fair way of doing things that allows us to get things done is efficient ways but still slows the process down so that laws are not changing rapidly. I think our government is effective in addressing these issues by having fair checks and balances by having three separate branches of government. I personally do not have a better way for how our government could handle these issues.
Without checks and balances in our government it could turn into a tyrannical system. This would make the people of the United States lose faith in our government and not trust things like the court system. Our society could quickly crumble under a tyrannical government. The United States Fish and Wildlife Service v. Sierra Club case is a great example of the Unites States having a balanced and fair government.
Works Cited
Barbour, Christine, and Gerald C. Wright. Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics the Essentials Chapter 10. CQ Press, 2017. P. 326
Barbour, Christine, and Gerald C. Wright. Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics the Essentials Chapter 10. CQ Press, 2017. P. 329
Barbour, Christine, and Gerald C. Wright. Keeping the Republic: Power and Citizenship in American Politics the Essentials Chapter 10. CQ Press, 2017. P. 334