(CNN) US District Judge Sharon Gleason ruled the Trump administration's plans to build a road through a national wildlife refuge in Alaska violate federal law.

The ruling came in a lawsuit that was filed by Friends of Alaska National Wildlife Refuges and other wildlife advocacy organizations, against the US Department of Interior and its Acting Secretary (who at the time was Ryan Zinke, but he has now been replaced by David Bernhardt), the US Fish and Wildlife Service and the King Cove Corporation.

Previous administration policies rejected the idea of a road several times. They maintained there were options and that its construction would be detrimental to the refuge's wildlife. But following the 2016 presidential campaign, Zinke entered into an exchange agreement -- a land swap -- with the King Cove Corporation, which would give the community the road they've been asking for. The decision discarded previous findings and was almost a complete reversal on the policies so far maintained by other administrations.

That exchange agreement, Gleason ruled, "constituted an unlawful agency action in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act" by changing the department's policy on the matter without proper justification.

A road crossing a habitat

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