The court of appeals reversed a district court judgment. The court held that the “serious questions” version of the sliding scale approach to preliminary injunctions remained viable after the Supreme Court’s 2008 decision in Winter v. Natural Resources Defense Council, 129 S. Ct. 365.
Alliance for the Wild Rockies (AWR) sought a preliminary injunction that would enjoin a timber salvage sale proposed by the United States Forest Service. Some two years after the Rat Creek Wildfire burned 27,000 acres in a Montana national forest, the Chief Forester of the Forest Service had made an Emergency Situation Determination (ESD) for the Rat Creek Salvage Project. The ESD permitted immediate logging on about 1,600 acres under the Project without any delays associated with the Forest Service’s administrative appeals process.
