Wild Earth Guardians submits petition for 13 species

The AP reports here.  Nicole Rosmarino, of Wild Earth Guardians, justifies the group's recent listing petition on the grounds that the ESA "is all about protecting the rich tapestry of life."  This observation underscores what many in the environmental community believe the ESA is supposed to defend—"biodiversity" writ large.  Whether or not a worthwhile endeavor, that statutory purpose may prove insufficient to withstand constitutional attack in a Commerce Clause challenge to the ESA before the Supreme Court.  The extent to which the ESA cannot be characterized as a market regulatory scheme (i.e., the interstate market in endangered species), to that extent the regulation of intrastate noncommercial species becomes, constitutionally speaking, more suspect.