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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ninth Circuit: Unelected bureaucrats can do whatever they want, no matter...
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...
View ArticlePLF and Washington Cattlemen’s Association call for repeal of illegal,...
This week, PLF submitted a petition, on behalf of the Washington Cattlemen’s Association, asking the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to repeal a regulation that illegally forbids the “take” of all...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Should unelected, unaccountable bureaucrats have free rein to regulate...
PLF argues “no,” in an amicus brief supporting four states, industry groups, and an Indian tribe in their challenge to the Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) unlawful fracking regulation. It purports to...
View ArticleNew Endangered Species Act regulations will improve the statute's implementation
This week, the Fish and Wildlife Service finalized its proposed regulations to reform the Endangered Species Act petition process. The regulation incorporates several important reforms and is a welcome...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The best way to protect the environment isn't always obvious
Our friend Brian Seasholes of the Reason Foundation has an article on DailyCaller.com on one of the oft overlooked environmental benefits of fracking: preserving open space as habitat for wildlife. He...
View ArticlePLF to testify at congressional hearing on how ESA burdens development
It is a busy week for PLF’s DC Center. Our Executive Director Todd Gaziano will be speaking Wednesday at an event hosted by Senator Lee (Utah) to announce the release of an American Enterprise...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PLF petitions for rehearing in Utah prairie dog case
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
PLF sends dilatory Service notice of a lawsuit threequel
What does it take to get the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to follow the law? For the citizens of Bonner County, Idaho, and members of the Idaho State Snowmobile Association, the answer is AT LEAST...
View ArticleThe U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Should Follow the Law
On Friday, our clients, the California Cattlemen’s Association, the California Wool Growers Association, and the California Farm Bureau Federation, asked a federal judge to find that the U.S. Fish and...
View ArticleClik here to view.
FWS finally acknowledges its illegal caribou listing
At long last, and after multiple rounds of litigation, the Service has withdrawn and replaced the listing of the Southern Selkirk Mountain population of caribou, a species that includes reindeer [I...
View ArticleReason Foundation report on PLF's success challenging FWS' failure to...
Brian Seasholes of Reason Foundation reports on the proposed downlisting of the tidewater goby. You may recall that the proposal is the result of successful petitions and litigation filed by PLF to...
View ArticlePLF comments on caribou downlisting
This week, PLF filed a comment letter on behalf of Bonner County and the Idaho State Snowmobile Association addressing the proposed downlisting of the caribou. The impetus for the Service’s decision...
View ArticleDelta smelt rehearing denied
This morning, the Ninth Circuit denied a rehearing before the entire court, leaving March’s panel decision in place. The denial sets the case up for a petition to the U.S. Supreme Court. Longtime...
View ArticlePLF appeals sea otter dismissal
PLF has filed its opening brief in the Ninth Circuit challenging the dismissal of a challenge brought by Southern California fishermen against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to violate...
View ArticlePLF asks SCOTUS to weigh in on Delta smelt water cutbacks
Today, PLF attorneys submitted to the United States Supreme Court a petition for certiorari, asking the high court to review the Ninth Circuit’s decision upholding the legality of the San Joaquin...
View ArticleVictory: PLF and People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners defeat...
For the first time, a federal court has struck down federal regulation of a species under the Endangered Species Act, holding that the Constitution doesn’t give the federal government limitless powers....
View ArticlePLF's Jonathan Wood on Fox and Friends tomorrow, discussing prairie dog decision
Tomorrow morning, I’ll be on Fox and Friends discussing PLF and PETPO‘s victory over the federal government’s unconstitutional regulation of private property to protect the Utah prairie dog. The...
View ArticleWhat are people saying about PLF's prairie dog win?
PLF’s big win last week on behalf of People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners, striking down an unconstitutional federal regulation that had devastating effects on a community—all to protect...
View ArticleNew video on PLF's victory in prairie dog case
People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners is a group of Utah property owners and local government that pushed back against unconstitutional federal regulations that barred them from building...
View ArticlePLF's Jonathan Wood on Stossel tonight, talking prairie dog win
Fox Business Network’s John Stossel devotes his program tonight (at 9pm Eastern) to the “Control Freaks” in government. I join Stossel to discuss PLF’s recent victory in the prairie dog case, on behalf...
View ArticleStossel program reairing Sunday at 10pm EST on FoxNews
If you missed last nights Stossel program‘s coverage of PLF’s prairie dog victory, you can still catch it this Sunday at 10 pm EST on FoxNews. A clip is also available on the show’s homepage. The post...
View ArticleCan the federal government make a city pass a leash law? [Updated]
The obvious answer must be no, right? Setting aside the absurdity of a town’s leash law being a federal issue, the Constitution forbids the federal government from commandeering state and local...
View ArticleIs Chief Justice Roberts anti-environment?
To honor Chief Justice Robert’s first decade on the Supreme Court — more like castigate him — the Constitutional Accountability Center has released a series of papers on the court’s jurisprudence. The...
View ArticleIs the Constitution a paradox?
In defending the constitutionality of the Utah prairie dog regulation, the government makes a paradoxical claim. Conceding that federal intrusions into areas of traditional state authority are...
View ArticleIt's good to have friends
Many friend-of-the-court briefs have been filed supporting People for the Ethical Treatment of Property Owners‘ challenge to the federal government’s unconstitutional Utah prairie dog regulation. These...
View ArticleThere are many ways to protect endangered species
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...
View ArticleCan agencies ignore Congress and do whatever they want?
This week, PLF filed its final brief on the motion for summary judgment in the sea otter case. The case will be argued in L.A. on Sept. 21. Representing fishermen whose livelihood depends on being able...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The lesson of the Animas River spill
By Riverhugger (Own work), via Wikimedia Commons In the Wall Street Journal, attorney and former high-ranking EPA official Bill Wehrum has an op-ed [$] arguing that the Animas River spill shouldn’t...
View ArticlePLF comments on proposed improvements to ESA petition process
This summer, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed revisions to the regulations governing listing and delisting petitions under the Endangered Species Act, to make that process more clear,...
View ArticleOral argument in PLF’s prairie dog case Sept. 28
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....
View ArticleRecording of 10th Circuit argument in Utah prairie dog case
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Take shouldn't be a strict liability offense
PLF has filed a motion to intervene on behalf of the New Mexico Cattle Growers’ Association, New Mexico Federal Lands Council, and the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau in a case that threatens to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Science or politics? Scientists dispute whether Great Lakes' wolves should be...
Last week, 26 scientists submitted a letter to the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service arguing that Gray wolves in the Great Lakes region are no longer endangered under the Endangered Species Act. This...
View ArticleHas the pit bull of environmental law been spayed?
The Endangered Species Act has often been called the “pit bull of environmental law” because “[i]t’s short, compact and has a hell of a set of teeth. Because of its teeth, the act can force people to...
View ArticleThe Commerce Clause isn't a "do-whatever-you-feel-like" power
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...
View ArticleIs environmental law an ass?
No, according to a decision from the Second Circuit issued this week. In Friends of Animals v. Clay, a radical animal rights group challenged a federal permit to take migratory birds that pose a risk...
View ArticleAre states better than the feds at protecting endangered species?
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...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Center for Biological Diversity goes batty
Photo courtesy of FWS The Center for Biological Diversity is threatening to sue the Fish & Wildlife Service for not imposing ruinous and unnecessary restrictions on private property owners...
View ArticleA win for voluntary conservation
This morning, the D.C. Circuit rejected a challenge to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s decision to withdraw its proposed listing of the dunes sagebrush lizard. The withdrawal was based on an intensive...
View ArticlePLF petition challenges illegal Endangered Species Act regulation
Today, PLF submitted a petition with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service, challenging a regulation that illegally extends the Endangered Species Act’s burdensome take prohibition to all threatened...
View ArticleCan agencies overrule Congress?
Today, PLF filed its opening brief in a challenge to the Fish and Wildlife Service’s denial of a petition demanding that the agency follow the law. This case centers on a sea otter compromise that...
View ArticleOral argument in sea otter case
This Friday, May 6th, the Ninth Circuit will consider whether federal bureaucrats can escape judicial review of their illegal acts by pointing to their prior violations of the law. The U.S. Fish and...
View ArticleNinth Circuit oral argument in sea otter case
Last week, I argued PLF’s sea otter case before the Ninth Circuit. The issue before the Court is an essential one, that could have impacts far beyond this case: Can federal agencies escape judicial...
View ArticleGood news for conservation: Feds abandon lesser prairie chicken appeal
Last week, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced that it was abandoning its appeal of a federal court ruling overturning its decision to list the lesser prairie chicken under the Endangered...
View ArticlePLF comments on caribou critical habitat
This week, PLF filed comments, joined by Bonner County, Idaho and the Idaho State Snowmobile Association (ISSA), on the Service’s proposed critical habitat designation for the woodland caribou. The...
View ArticleBureaucrats shouldn't be able to escape legal scrutiny
Yesterday, Townhall published my op-ed highlighting the importance of PLF’s big, unanimous Supreme Court win in our Hawkes case (and its predecessor, Sackett) and whether these cases foreshadow...
View ArticleNinth Circuit strikes a blow for judicial review of administrative agencies
This morning, the Ninth Circuit held that federal agencies cannot escape judicial scrutiny for illegal actions simply because they have violated the law before. In PLF’s sea otter case, we represent...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Lesser prairie chicken delisted
Courtesy McRoberts, USFWS Today, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service formally removed the lesser prairie chicken — a species widely distributed across Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas,...
View ArticleBriefing complete in sea otter petition case
This week, we filed our reply brief in PLF’s challenge to the Service’s denial of a petition asking it to follow the law and implement protections for Southern California’s fishery. As regular readers...
View Article
