Courts

States Vow To Sue Trump Over New Plans To Endanger Species

Again, it's not about Trump's authority but about his process.

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The cattle industry says this majestic chicken is doing just fine, so let’s take their word for it. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Tale as old as time,
Trump just doesn’t see.
Capricious is a flaw,
Cannot change the law,
Arbitrarily.

Yesterday, the Trump administration announced it was gutting the Endangered Species Act. Why? The Department of the Interior says that changing the way the ESA is enforced will increase transparency and efficiency while still protecting wildlife. If you believe that, I have a oil rig in Manhattan I’d like to sell you. The real reason for the proposed changes is to make it easier for businesses and ranchers to trample wildlife on their way to greater profits. You can tell who this is intended to benefit by just looking at the validators who support this proposed change to the regulation:

A series of statements in support of the changes, published by the Interior Department, included comments from five Republican U.S. senators and six members of Congress, the National Association of Home Builders, the Public Lands Council, the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association and other organizations.

Right. If anybody cares about transparency and efficiency in protecting wildlife, it’s the National Association of Home Builders and the National Cattleman’s Beef Association. Sure.

Also yesterday, Massachusetts Attorney General Maura Healey and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra promised to sue the administration to stop these changes. From The Enterprise:

“By gutting key components of the Endangered Species Act, one of our country’s most successful environmental laws, the Trump administration is putting our most imperiled species and our vibrant local tourism and recreation industries at risk,” Healey said in a statement. “We will be taking the administration to court to defend federal law and protect our rare animals, plants, and the environment.”

Healey and California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the new rules would allow federal agencies to ignore “serious threats to endangered animals and plants,” limit the circumstances when a species can be listed as threatened, and eliminate a requirement that agencies consider a species’ ability to recover before removing it from the endangered or threatened list.

Healey’s office said she believes the rules “would pave the way for approval of oil and gas and other development projects despite any species impacts.” U.S. Sen. Ed Markey took a similar stance, saying the changes came “at the behest of the oil, gas, and mining industries” and “will put countless species in the crosshairs of extinction.”

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And so we play our game: the Trump administration wants to change the law based on a pretextual reason that nobody should actually believe. The states want to block the administration and will likely argue that their rule change is arbitrary and capricious. Progressive courts will recognize the bad faith and bad intentions of the Trump administration and try to block him from implementing wanton destruction of vulnerable species based on the say so of some dude who thinks methane-induced climate change is a socialist, vegan “hoax.” Republican courts will rule that the president can do whatever he wants because the last remaining habitats for the Ahch-To Porg should not stand in the way of voracious capitalism.

In a 5-4 decision, Chief Justice John Roberts will rule that not only is the Trump administration allowed to put Don Jr. in charge of “administering” the the Endangered Species Act, it will also rule that Massachusetts has no standing to sue unless lobsters are threatened, and overrule Mass v. EPA which is the thing even slightly standing in the way of fossil fuel proponents who want to ruin the climate.

Everything is terrible and will get worse.

AG Maura Healey plans to sue feds to protect wildlife [The Enterprise]

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Elie Mystal is the Executive Editor of Above the Law and a contributor at The Nation. He can be reached @ElieNYC on Twitter, or at elie@abovethelaw.com. He will resist.

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