A coalition of 21 states has filed two lawsuits challenging the Trump administration’s decision to roll back the definition of “harm” under the Endangered Species Act (ESA), removing consideration of critical habitat in protecting threatened species.
“The federal government’s attempt to gut the Endangered Species Act threatens the habitats of orcas, sockeye salmon, and other endangered species that are part of our economy, culture, and way of life,” Washington Attorney General Nick Brown said in a release. “These illegal actions ignore the will of Washingtonians and people across the United States, who overwhelmingly support protecting endangered species.”
The U.S. federal government has long included species’ habitat in its definition of harm, ensuring the spaces endangered animals need to survive are protected from human activities and economic development. In July, the Trump administration rescinded that definition, arguing that prior administrations had abused the rule to obstruct economic growth.
Conservation groups have sued over the change, arguing it severely limits the government’s ability to protect endangered species.
On 25 August, seven former heads of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and NOAA Fisheries wrote a letter to administration officials warning that the recission will lead to exctinctions.
“Together, we have spent decades administering the Endangered Species Act under presidents from both parties. While we have differing opinions on many aspects of implementation, we all agree that the recent reinterpretation of the term ‘harm' will upend the law and lead to extinction for some of our most iconic wildlife,” the former officials said in their letter.
Signatories include former USFWS directors Daniel Ashe, Jamie Rappaport Clark, Martha Williams, Steven Williams, and H. Dale Hall, along with former NOAA Fisheries assistant administrators Janet Coit and Eileen Sobeck.
"The administration is arguing that you can protect endangered animals without protecting the places they need to survive," the former officials stated in the letter. “Fifty years of science – and common sense – say otherwise.”
Now, attorneys general from 21 states have joined together to file two separate lawsuits challenging the change.
“Maryland’s endangered species and the habitats they depend on deserve real protection, not political rollbacks that put entire ecosystems at risk,” Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown said in a release. “My office will not stand by while the federal government unlawfully strips away the safeguards that Marylanders and our state’s wildlife depend on.”
The first suit challenges the recission of the “harm” definition directly, calling the action “unlawful.”
“The Harm Rule Rescission directly undermines the ESA’s species recovery purpose, and is contrary to clear statutory mandates, United States Supreme Court and Ninth Circuit precedents, and the ESA’s legislative history, and thus is not in accordance with law and exceeds the Services’ statutory jurisdiction and authority,” the attorneys general state in the lawsuit. “The services’ explanation and justification for the Harm Rule Rescission also is arbitrary, capricious and an abuse of discretion.”
The suit names USFWS, NOAA Fisheries, and multiple Trump administration officials as defendants.
The second lawsuit challenges two rule changes by FWS: one rescinding automatic protections for newly listed threatened species, and one establishing a new process for designating critical habitat.
“Caring for our wildlife and our environment is part of caring for our future, yet President Trump seems to care only for himself and his industry friends. The Trump Administration has continuously sought to put our ecosystems in danger, which is why we continue to take them to court,” Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a release. “For over half a century, the ESA has stood as a bipartisan example of what it means to protect an irreplaceable part of our planet, but these new rules attempt to destroy longstanding and integral regulatory protections and open the door to further species decline and possible extinctions. Today, we are taking action to protect our environment and all those with whom we share the planet.”
