The Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) has sued the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump after the government failed to provide public documents related to its decision to rescind the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
The lawsuit follows the U.S. Department of the Interior’s July decision to roll back the definition of “harm” in the ESA to no longer take into account modifications and degradation of habitat in protecting endangered species. In announcing the change, the Trump administration said incorporating those habitat considerations was a result of federal overreach and the definition in place for roughly 40 years had been used to unnecessarily stifle economic development.
“President Trump is rescinding overly broad and burdensome regulations that have restrained our fishermen for too long,” U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick said at the time. “We’re returning the ESA to its foundational purpose to ensure legitimate conservation goals are met without sacrificing economic growth and American prosperity.”
Conservation groups, however, argued that the recission would eviscerate protections for threatened animals and directly lead to extinctions. Conservation groups – and attorneys general from more than 20 states – have filed lawsuits to undo the change. The U.S. Justice Department has responded to four of those suits, arguing that its action was “a matter of law, not policy.”
On August 27, CBD filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking documents and correspondences related to how the federal government is handling the “incidental take” of animals listed under the ESA in light of the recission. The conservation NGO has also asked for an official copy of a leaked government memo stating that accidental harm of animals listed under the ESA would no longer be considered take.
The Trump administration has not responded to the request; now, CBD is suing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia to force the government to hand over the requested documents.
“The Trump administration is trying to roll back decades of protections for imperiled wildlife under an illegal cloak of secrecy,” CBD Oceans Legal Director Kristen Monsell said in a release. “The incompetence and cruelty underlying these changes could permanently harm animals and plants already on the brink of extinction. Americans have a right to know how their government is implementing these horrible, unprecedented policies.”
