Case Law Details
Latin Americans for Social and Economic Development v. FHWA
Project Description:
This project involved a proposal to construct the Detroit River International Crossing (DRIC), bridge connecting the United States and Canada. The site of the proposed bridge was located approximately two miles from the existing crossing of the Detroit River, known as the Ambassador Bridge. FHWA and MDOT issued a Final EIS for the project in November 2008 and, in January 2009, FHWA issued a ROD approving the project. The approved project included the bridge crossing, a customs plaza, and a highway connection in the Delray neighborhood in Detroit, Michigan.
2012 WL 273716
2012 WL 273716
U.S. District Court – Michigan
01/31/2012
Detroit River International Crossing
Highway
Case Summary
Seven plaintiffs filed a lawsuit challenging FHWA’s approval of the project . The lawsuit raised a wide range of claims under NEPA, Section 4(f), and Section 106 of the NHPA. In this decision, the court ruled against the plaintiffs’ motion to supplement the administrative record. In a later decision (issued on 04/05/2012), the court ruled against the plaintiffs on the merits of their claims.
Key Holdings
Litigation Procedure Supplementation of Administrative Record. The plaintiffs sought to supplement the administrative record by submitting additional documents, including a purported “secret Canadian documents”. The court rejected this request. It found that “The limited circumstances for supplementation do not obtain here”. Specifically, the court held that the “secret Canadian documents” not relevant because “Canadian views on the DRIC project have no bearing” on the adequacy of the ROD, and also held that post-ROD documents are irrelevant because the court’s decision must be based solely on the record as it existed when the ROD was issued.
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