By: Derek Hawkins//October 19, 2021//
7th Circuit Court of Appeals
Case Name: Protect Our Parks, Inc., et al., v. Pete Buttigieg, et al.,
Case No.: 21-2449
Officials: KANNE, WOOD, and HAMILTON, Circuit Judges.
Focus: Preliminary Injunction
In 2016, the City of Chicago and the Barack Obama Foundation selected Jackson Park in Chicago as the location for the Obama Presidential Center. The Center, consisting of a museum, public library, and other spaces for cultural enrichment and education related to the life and presidency of Barack Obama, will take up about 20 acres of the park and require that the City close several nearby roadways. The National Park Service approved the City’s plan to build in the park on the condition that the City expand nearby spaces for public recreation. The Federal Highway Administration approved construction of new roadways to make up for the roadways the City was to close. Both agencies together performed an environmental assessment and concluded that their decisions would have an insignificant effect on the environment and were the least damaging alternatives available to each agency. But they did not consider whether the City could have further reduced environmental harms by building the Center elsewhere.
A group of concerned local citizens, headed by the organization Protect Our Parks, Inc., argued that this environmental review was too cramped; they sought to enjoin construction of the Center under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), 5 U.S.C. § 702. The district court denied Protect Our Parks’s request for a preliminary injunction on August 5. Protect Our Parks promptly moved to enjoin construction pending its appeal from that order. We denied the motion for an injunction pending appeal. Protect Our Parks also asks us to expedite this appeal. That request is granted, and an expedited briefing schedule will issue separately.
Motion denied. Request for expedited appeal granted.