Articles

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 ...

This weekend, Senator Mike Lee of Utah and I had an article in the Wall Street Journal urging the Supreme Court to hear People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service---PLF's challenge to a federal regulation that frustrates the recovery of the Utah prairie dog and threatens to erode any limits on the federal ...

This morning, we filed a petition for rehearing en banc in People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners v. U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service—our challenge to the federal government's constitutional authority to regulate take of the Utah prairie dog. Three years ago, the District Court for the District of Utah ruled the regulation unconstituti ...

We got some disappointing news yesterday when the Tenth Circuit overturned the federal district court's decision that federal regulations prohibiting the take of Utah prairie dogs exceed the federal government's constitutional powers. As you may not recall, since more than 18 months passed between oral argument and the decision, PLF is challenging ...

In honor of Groundhog Day, WildEarth Guardians released its annual report card for federal and state management of prairie dogs. Unsurprisingly, the environmental group isn't too fond of PLF's victory on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners (PETPO). Yet it's judgment of the relative quality of federal and state management s ...

In an article published today by the Federalist Society's Engage, I discuss PLF's constitutional challenge to the Endangered Species Act in the prairie dog case. As you'll recall, we represented People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners -- a group of Utah residents who have suffered for decades under federal regulations to protect the Ut ...

The Endangered Species & Wetlands Report has obtained the recording of the Monday's oral argument in the Utah prairie dog case. As you'll recall, this is the constitutional challenge to the federal government's authority to regulate any activity that affects any living thing under the Commerce Clause. As we argue, the Commerce Clause isn't an o ...

Next week, I'll be arguing People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners' case against the unconstitutional Utah prairie dog regulation in the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, Colorado. The argument will be at 9 am mountain time at the Byron White Courthouse at 1823 Stout Street. As you'll recall, this is the federal government's ...

If species aren't protected under the Endangered Species Act's burdensome approach, they'll receive no protection at all. This is an all too common refrain. But it's a false choice. There are many ways to try to conserve and recover species. The ESA's punitive approach is not the only one, nor even the best one. Take the Utah prairie dog. The incr ...