US states sue Trump administration for weakening endangered species protections
The states say the rules let development damage habitats and strip automatic protections from newly threatened species, weakening safeguards for more than 1,600 species.
- On Wednesday, a coalition of 21 attorneys general from Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia filed two lawsuits against the Trump administration, alleging it illegally weakened the Endangered Species Act to facilitate development.
- The Interior Department stated the reform aligns with the Supreme Court's 2024 decision in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, claiming agencies must follow the single best meaning of statutes rather than contort laws for political agendas.
- Plaintiffs specifically challenge three rule changes: a narrowed definition of "harm," removal of automatic protections for newly listed threatened species, and a new critical habitat process allowing agencies to prioritize economic impacts.
- Washington Attorney General Nick Brown argued the changes threaten orca and sockeye salmon habitats, while California Attorney General Rob Bonta said the administration chooses "extraction, exploitation and profiteering over protection and preservation."
- Filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, the lawsuits seek to block the new rules, citing a 2019 study showing the Endangered Species Act has prevented 99% of protected species from extinction.
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California sues over Trump’s changes to Endangered Species Act, arguing they threaten habitat – WTOP News
California’s beloved condors and sea otters have rebounded from the brink of extinction thanks to the Endangered Species Act. Now the state is going to court to keep the 50-year-old law intact, filing two lawsuits Wednesday to block what Democratic leaders describe as the Trump administration’s rollback of its protections. Attorney General Rob Bonta filed...
Twenty American states have sued the Trump administration for weakening the Endangered Species Act, the historic 1973 federal law on endangered species, to which it is due to have protected a vast variety of animals such as the California condor, the grizzly bear, the whale and, above all, the white head eagle, one of the [...] The article More than 20 States sue the Trump administration: "He weakened the federal law on endangered species" comes…
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