Cain's Sept. 22 order had been celebrated by the oil and gas industry, which had sued in August alongside the state of Louisiana over an earlier decision by the Interior Department to scale back the auction.
Representatives for the Interior Department, environmental groups, the Louisiana attorney general's office and the American Petroleum Institute did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The Interior Department finalized plans for a reduced lease sale in August, after last year's Inflation Reduction Act mandated the auction move forward.
The sale made about 67 million acres in the Gulf available for bids.
Those groups had claimed the whales can be harmed or killed by oil spills, vessel strikes, noise, marine debris and other impacts of oil and gas exploration and development.
Persons:
Biden, James Cain's, Joe Biden, Nichola Groom, Clark Mindock, Sandra Maler, Alexia Garamfalvi, Richard Chang
Organizations:
Chevron Corp, Monday, Circuit, U.S . Interior Department, Interior Department, U.S, District, of Ocean Energy Management, American Petroleum Institute, Democratic, Thomson
Locations:
Gulf of Mexico, New Orleans, Louisiana, U.S