Green v. Trump

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Sea stars cling to deep sea coral and sponges in the Mytilus Seamount, Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.

Sea stars cling to deep sea coral and sponges in the Mytilus Seamount, Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument

Credit: NOAA Office of Ocean Exploration and Research

Roughly 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod, Massachusetts, the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument encompasses a cluster of undersea canyons, seamounts (submarine mountains, often extinct volcanoes), and the diverse ocean ecosystems in and around them. This biodiversity hot spot offers food, shelter, and nursery habitat to a wide range of marine life, including puffins, whales, sea turtles, and deep-sea corals. President Barack Obama established the monument in 2016 to protect these resources from commercial fishing and other extractive activities, keeping them intact for future generations.

In 2024, two individual fishermen plaintiffs, represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation, filed a lawsuit challenging the monument’s legality. Their complaint in Green v. Biden echoed two previous unsuccessful legal challenges, also filed by the Pacific Legal Foundation: Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association v. Raimondo (filed in 2017 by five fishing industry groups) and Fehily v Biden (filed in 2022 by two commercial fishermen plaintiffs).

Like the Massachusetts Lobstermen’s Association plaintiffs and the Fehily plaintiffs, the Green plaintiffs asked the court to invalidate the monument and open it to commercial fishing—and their radical legal theory would threaten other monuments too.

NRDC and our partners—the Conservation Law Foundation, Center for Biological Diversity, and whale-watch naturalist Zack Klyver—moved to intervene to defend the monument’s legality, and the court granted our motion in December 2024. The case remains pending.

NOTE: The case name changed from Green v. Biden to Green v. Trump when President Trump took office in January 2025.

Case Documents

Plaintiffs' complaint, Green v. Biden, March 18, 2024 (PDF) NRDC's motion to intervene, Green v. Biden, June 27, 2024 (PDF) NRDC's reply in support of intervention, Green v. Biden, June 27, 2024 (PDF) Plaintiffs' opposition to intervention, Green v. Biden, June 27, 2024 (PDF) NRDC's proposed answer, Green v. Biden, June 27, 2024 (PDF) Federal defendants' answer, Green v. Biden, August 8, 2024 (PDF) Court order granting intervention, Green v. Biden, December 2, 2024 (PDF) Motion for extension, Green v. Trump, June 9, 2025 (PDF)
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