Who’s on First and Other Mysteries - Fifth Circuit Remands Gulf of Mexico Moratorium Case to District Court
Sometimes, even with a scorecard, “you can’t tell the players.”
The saga of the Obama administration’s moratorium on Gulf of Mexico drillings operations took another strange turn yesterday. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit entered a “LIMITED REMAND” to the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana for the purpose of holding a hearing, “calling witnesses if necessary” and issuing findings of fact and conclusions of law with respect to three specific questions. Hornbeck Offshore Services LLC v. Salazar, No. 10-30585, slip op. at 2-3 (5th Cir. August 16, 2010)(capitalization in original).
The court reasoned that it did not have before it a sufficient record on which to determine whether the second moratorium rendered moot the injunction the District Court had entered with respect to the first moratorium. The three issues on which it ordered the District Court to rule are:
- Whether Secretary Salazar has the authority to terminate the original moratorium filed on May 28th due to original decisions held by both the District Court and the U.S. Court of Appeals under the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Administrative Procedures Act;
- Whether the evidence provided for the July 12th revision of the moratorium was available or unavailable for Secretary Salazar at the time he originally filed the May 28th moratorium; and
- Describing the differences, if any, between the May 28th and the July 12th moratorium memoranda, what circumstances may have changed since the two were made, and if the issuance of the July 12th moratorium rendered the May 28th moratorium moot.
For further information about this topic, please contact Akin Gump.



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