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