Articles

New article on judicial review and the Endangered Species Act

April 04, 2017 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

The Endangered Species Act gives the United States Fish and Wildlife Service the authority to exclude areas from protected species’ “critical habitat” when the benefits of excluding those areas would exceed the benefits of including them. This power is significant, because the regulatory burdens—and consequent loss in value& ...

Articles

Briefing complete in the green sturgeon case

August 19, 2016 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

This week, we filed our reply brief to our request to the United States Supreme Court to review the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals’ decision in Building Industry Association of the Bay Area v. United States Department of Commerce. We have asked the High Court to review the Ninth Circuit’s ruling that landowners and other affected part ...

Articles

Environmental law and "discretion"

March 22, 2013 | By DAMIEN SCHIFF

One issue I have been thinking a lot about recently, particularly in light of the Supreme Court’s denial of cert in The New 49’ers v. Karuk Tribe of California, is the scope of the duty of federal agencies to consult, under Section 7 of the Endangered Species Act, over the impacts of their “discretionary” actions on protec ...