Case docket
Mayor and City Council of Ocean City, Maryland et al. v. U.S. Department of the Interior et al. — D. Md., No. 1:24-cv-03111-SAG
Mayor and City Council of Ocean City, Maryland et al. v. U.S. Department of the Interior et al. — 7 court filings in the archive from U.S. District Court, District of Maryland, filed between December 5, 2025 and April 13, 2026. Among them: 2 opinions and 1 exhibit.
Case facts
| Court | U.S. District Court, District of Maryland |
|---|---|
| Filings | 7 public filings |
| Filed | 2025-12-05 – 2026-04-13 |
| Document types | opinions (2), exhibit (1) |
| Original PDFs | 5 of 7 |
Case summary
The Mayor and City Council of Ocean City, Maryland and other public and private entities brought this action in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, No. 1:24-cv-03111-SAG, challenging the Department of the Interior's December 2024 approval of the Construction and Operations Plan for US Wind, Inc.'s offshore wind project off the Atlantic coast of Maryland. The defendants are the Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Marine Fisheries Service and agency officials in their official capacities. US Wind intervened and filed cross claims. On December 15, 2025 the court denied US Wind's motion for a preliminary injunction, and on February 13, 2026 it granted the federal defendants' motion to dismiss those cross claims. No filing on this page names a pandemic relief program.
Case at a glance
| Parties | Plaintiffs: Mayor and City Council of Ocean City, Maryland, and others, described by the court as a large group of public and private entities. Defendants and cross-defendants: United States Department of the Interior, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Marine Fisheries Service and representatives of those agencies in their official capacities, collectively the Federal Defendants. Defendant-intervenor and cross-plaintiff: US Wind, Inc. |
|---|---|
| Court and docket | U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, No. 1:24-cv-03111-SAG, written on the opinions as Civil Case No. SAG-24-03111 (District Judge Stephanie A. Gallagher) |
| Program | Not named in the filings on this page. The measures at issue are the Department of the Interior's approval of US Wind's Construction and Operations Plan and the presidential memorandum "Temporary Withdrawal of All Areas on the Outer Continental Shelf From Offshore Wind Leasing and Review of the Federal Government's Leasing and Permitting Practices for Wind Projects", 90 Fed. Reg. 8363 (Jan. 20, 2025) |
| Claims | The plaintiffs' complaint challenges the approval of the Construction and Operations Plan on several grounds; the complaint itself is not on this page. US Wind's cross claims, as described by the court: Counts I–V, that the perceived revocation of the approval violates the Administrative Procedure Act, the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act and the Due Process Clause of the Fifth Amendment; Counts VI–X, declaratory judgments that the plan and its approval process complied with several of the statutes the plaintiffs say they violated |
| Disposition or status | Partly decided; the plaintiffs' own claims are not resolved on this page. On December 15, 2025 the court denied US Wind's motion for a preliminary injunction, without prejudice to renewal, holding that it had identified no final agency action ripe for review and so had not shown a likelihood of success. On February 13, 2026 the court granted US Wind leave to file a sur-reply and granted the federal defendants' motion to dismiss the cross claims: Counts I–V dismissed for insufficient factual allegations, with leave to amend denied at that point, and Counts VI–X declined as duplicative of the plaintiffs' claims. The last filing on the page is an exhibit filed April 13, 2026, a request for a supplemental environmental impact statement, which extracts as a twelve-page scan with no text |
| Status checked | 2026-09-23 · against DOJ press releases through 2026-09-22; court docket not yet read |
What is the case about?
The court describes it as concerning US Wind, Inc.'s plan to construct an offshore wind project off the Atlantic coast of Maryland. After the Department of the Interior formally approved the project's Construction and Operations Plan in December 2024, a large group of public and private entities challenged the approval in this lawsuit against the Department, the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, the National Marine Fisheries Service and officials of those agencies. US Wind, which holds the lease, intervened.
What did the court decide on the preliminary injunction?
In a memorandum opinion of December 15, 2025, after a hearing on December 10, 2025, the court denied US Wind's motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin what it perceived as the government's decision to revoke the approval. The court held that US Wind's claims were not ripe because they depended on contingent future events, that it had identified no action from which legal consequences would flow or that amounted to a legally cognizable hardship, and that it had therefore not shown a likelihood of success on the merits. The denial was without prejudice to renewal at a later date.
What did the court decide on the cross claims?
In a memorandum opinion of February 13, 2026, without a hearing, the court granted US Wind leave to file a sur-reply and granted the federal defendants' motion to dismiss. It dismissed Counts I–V as containing insufficient factual allegations to state a claim, denying leave to amend at that point while noting that nothing precluded US Wind from seeking leave to reassert claims if circumstances changed, and declined to hear the declaratory judgment claims in Counts VI–X because in substance they duplicated several of the plaintiffs' claims.
Summary written from the documents on this page; every sentence is sourced.
Filings
7 public filings from this case, in filing-date order.
- US Wind Reply ISO Preliminary Injunction MotionPDF
- US Wind Response to Motion to Dismiss Cross ClaimsPDF
- Memorandum Opinion (Preliminary Injunction Denied)Opinion
- Federal Defendants Reply ISO Motion to Dismiss Cross Claims — Ocean City v. Interior (D. Md.)PDF
- Memorandum Opinion (MTD Cross Claims)Opinion · PDF
- US Wind Surreply re Motion to Dismiss Cross ClaimsPDF
- Exhibit 1 — Request for Supplemental EISExhibit
Court, dates and docket numbers are as recorded on the filings.