Key Contacts
When Does NEPA Apply? The Eleventh Circuit Draws a Hard Line in Friends of the Everglades v. DHS
In a significant April 2026 decision, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit vacated a district court injunction that had halted operation of an immigration detention facility constructed in the Florida Everglades (“the Facility”). The case, Friends of the Everglades v. Secretary of Homeland Security, No. 25-12873, turned on two threshold issues: (1) whether the plaintiffs challenged a final agency action under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA), and (2) whether the project constituted a major federal action under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The Eleventh Circuit answered both questions in the negative, concluding that the plaintiffs were unlikely to succeed on the merits and that the preliminary injunction should not have been granted.
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