Endangered Species Records Ruling Would Undermine FOIA, Feds Say

The Trump administration is urging the U.S. Supreme Court to allow the government to keep certain endangered species records out of the public eye.

Government lawyers submitted a brief Thursday calling on the justices to reverse a lower court’s ruling that required the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) and National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) to release draft documents related to an environmental regulation’s impacts on at-risk species.

The contested decision from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit would “severely undermine” the design of the Freedom of Information Act, the administration told the court.

The case is ...