United States Fish and Wildlife Serv. v. Sierra Club, Inc.

Summary

The Supreme Court held that the draft biological opinions prepared by the Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service are protected by the deliberative‑process privilege because they are both predecisional and deliberative, even though they represented the agencies’ last views on the EPA’s 2013 proposed rule. The Court reversed the Ninth Circuit’s judgment and remanded for further proceedings consistent with this holding.