The Union of Concerned Scientists wants the First Circuit to overturn a lower court’s decision to dismiss its lawsuit challenging the EPA’s decision to purge its advisory boards of scientists in receipt of agency grants.
The trial court dismissed the group’s suit in March on the grounds that the Federal Advisory Committee Act doesn’t define what it means for an agency to have a “fairly balanced” board of advisers. Without a way to parse that phrase, there’s nothing for a court to do, the trial judge said.
But FACA defines “fairly” as done “without bias or distortion” in another part ...