Press/ For Immediate Release
Dexter Lehtinen (305) 279-1166
Miami/September 5, 2002
Joette Lorion
MICCOSUKEE TRIBE WINS 11TH CIRCUIT COURT OF
APPEALS' DECISION
AGAINST THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT
Today the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians, who
live in the Florida
Everglades, announced that they have won an important victory for
both the
Everglades and open government. The 11th Circuit Court of
Appeals has ruled
in favor of the Tribe in a case concerning the Federal Advisory
Committee Act
(FACA). In a September 4, 2002, opinion in case
No.
01-16626, the
Court
reversed and remanded a federal district court decision that
dismissed the
Tribe's lawsuit concerning the federal government's establishment
of the
Southern Everglades Restoration Alliance (SERA) as an advisory
committee on
important Everglades restoration issues.
The Tribe alleged in its lawsuit that the
federal government used SERA as
an advisory committee without complying with the requirements of
the Federal
Advisory Committee Act (FACA), such as holding publicly notice
meetings. The
Tribe claims the government's use of this committee without
complying with
FACA resulted in closed door changes to Congressionally
authorized Everglades
restoration projects that delayed their implementation and
continue to cause
harm to vast areas of Tribal Everglades.
According to Dexter Lehtinen, General
Counsel for the Tribe, "We are
delighted because it illustrates the improper methods the
government has used
in Everglades policy making in the past. But more
importantly, it brings
into question their proposals for how they plan to do business in
the future.
They want to continue to delegate decisions and make them out of
the sunshine
without proper input."
The 11th Circuit dismissed SERA and its
Executive Director from the
lawsuit, because the group disbanded after the Tribe filed it
lawsuit in
1999. The Department of the Interior, Everglades National Park,
National Park
Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and Army Corps of
Engineers remain as
Defendants. The Tribe claims that SERA's advice is continuing to
harm Tribal
Everglades. The Court stated: "The plain meaning still rules
statutory
construction, and it compels our conclusion in this case: SERA is
an advisory
committee within the meaning of FACA, because it was
'established...by one or
more agencies, in the interest of obtaining advice or
recommendations.' The
district court should not have dismissed the complaint on the
theory that
FACA did not apply to SERA as is described in the allegations of
the
complaint." The 11th Circuit remanded the case for
proceedings consistent
with their opinion.