Kleissler v. United States Forest Service
United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
157 F.3d 964 (1998)
After the U.S. Forest Service (Service) (defendant) approved logging projects in the Allegheny National Forest, environmental plaintiffs sued to enjoin the logging, and numerous third parties - local school districts and townships entitled by statute to a share of logging revenues, timber companies with current or historically dependent Service contracts, and a nonprofit trade association of logging concerns - sought to intervene; the district court permitted intervention only for two companies with direct current contracts on the specific projects at issue, denying it to the rest, who appealed.
Whether third parties who timely move to intervene are entitled to do so if they demonstrate a direct, concrete, and substantial interest in the dispute that risks impairment as a practical matter by the action's disposition and will not be adequately represented by existing litigants.