Summers v. Earth Island Institute

The U.S. Forest Service (USFS) (defendant) adopted a regulation exempting small fire-rehabilitation and timber-salvage projects from its usual notice-and-comment and appeal process. After a fire in Sequoia National Forest, USFS approved a small salvage-timber sale, the Burnt Ridge Project, without any notice or appeal process based on the size exemption; environmental organizations (plaintiffs) sued, won a preliminary injunction, and then settled the Burnt Ridge dispute specifically — but continued to challenge the underlying regulation generally, and the district court and court of appeals ruled for the plaintiffs on the merits before the Supreme Court granted certiorari on standing.