Articles

Author:  Damien M. Schiff In Home Builders Association of Northern California v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service, we challenged the Service's 600,000-acre-plus designation of critical habitat for 15 vernal pool species. The case was designed to apply our victory in the Alameda Whipsnake case (under the same case title). Unfortun ...

Author:  Damien M. Schiff The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled today in Otay Mesa Properties v. United States Fish & Wildlife Service that the Service's designation of the plaintiff's San Diego border property as occupied critical habitat for the San Diego fairy shrimp was arbitrary and capricious.  The court ruled ...

Last week, the National Marine Fisheries Service announced that it would not list the ribbon seal under the Endangered Species Act.  The agency explained that the species is very adaptable, and should be able to survive the negative impacts of declining sea ice habitat.  That is an interesting conclusion, because the Fish & Wildlife Service ...

Last week, I testified before the House Natural Resources Committee on the federal government’s maladministration of the Endangered Species Act.  Most of hearing, however, focused on United States Fish & Wildlife Service Director Dan Ashe.  Just a few days before the hearing, the Inspector General’s office of the Department of Int ...

PLF’s cert petition in Stewart & Jasper Orchards v. Jewell, which seeks review of the Ninth Circuit’s decision upholding the Delta-smelt-inspired water cutbacks to Southern California and the San Joaquin Valley, has received significant amicus curiae support.  Our thanks to the American Farm Bureau Federation, the California Farm B ...