It’s time to restrain federal agencies’ power grabs
PLF filed a fresh lawsuit today on the heels of our latest Supreme Court victory. Last week, in Weyerhaeuser v. United States Fish and Wildlife Service, a unanimous Supreme Court reaffirmed that agencies are not immune from judicial review of their actions. This wasn't just a win for PLF and our clients: it was also a win for the critical princi ...
Victory : Activists’ effort to worsen overcriminalization ends with a whimper
In 2013, several environmental activist groups launched a lawsuit to expand the criminal reach of the Endangered Species Act. They challenged the United States' longstanding interpretation of the statutes, which makes it a crime to "knowingly" "take" a protected species, to require defendants know their actions will cause take and the particular sp ...
Feds propose ending counterproductive golden parakeet regulations
Thanks to a lawsuit filed by PLF, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service yesterday issued a proposed rule to remove outdated and counterproductive regulations that hurt golden parakeet conservation efforts by creating unnecessary red tape for U.S. bird breeders. caption id="attachment_45249" align="alignright" width="232" Under the proposed rule, AF ...
Don’t know how to identify every one of the 1,500 endangered species? This group wants to throw you in prison.
Ok, that's a slight overstatement. But not as much of one as you would think. Activist group WildEarth Guardians apparently dreams of a world in which people can be thrown in federal prison if they accidentally hit the wrong rodent scurrying across a dark highway, disturb the wrong insect while building a tree house, or even get too close to the wr ...
New report shows the conservation benefits of regulating endangered and threatened species differently
This week, the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC) published The Road to Recovery: How restoring the Endangered Species Act's two-step process can prevent extinction and promote recovery. In that report, I explain how returning to Congress' original design for the Endangered Species Act---according to which the statute's most burden ...
A postscript to the Utah prairie dog case : federal agency embraces state-led reform
For decades, a federal agency had forbidden people in southwestern Utah from doing things that most of us take for granted in our own communities, like building homes, starting businesses, or protecting their airport, playgrounds, and cemetery from disruption, all ostensibly to protect the Utah prairie dog. Thanks to a lawsuit PLF filed on behalf o ...
Ninth Circuit : Unelected bureaucrats can do whatever they want, no matter what the law or facts say. See Chevron.
In the 80s, Congress enacted a statute authorizing the Service to move otters to southern California on the condition that it implement protections for the surrounding fishery and the fishermen whose livelihoods depend on it, including requirements that the Service exclude otters from parts of the fishery and exempt fishermen from criminal prosecut ...
PLF, Ranchers tell federal agencies they cannot ignore economic costs of their decisions
caption id="attachment_50789" align="alignright" width="225" Electric Fence Warning in Otero County/caption Before making a decision, most organizations take into account the costs and benefits of a proposed action, and will change course if the costs outweigh the benefits. Unfortunately, the federal government takes a different approach, even w ...
What constitutes a ‘subspecies’ under the Endangered Species Act?
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service should not be allowed to hide the ball from the public when determining which species can be listed under the Endangered Species Act—especially when the agency's decisions can cost Americans billions of dollars. That is why today PLF attorneys filed, on behalf of a broad coalition of property rights, sound scien ...