Environmental & Energy
Oct. 9, 2026
Trump administration invokes Chevron's demise to narrow endangered species protections
The Justice Department argues that the Supreme Court's rejection of Chevron deference supports eliminating habitat modification from the definition of harm under the Endangered Species Act, setting up a legal battle over the reach of a landmark environmental law.
The U.S. Department of Justice moved for summary judgment Wednesday in four challenges to a Trump administration decision to rescind a previous U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service rule that included habitat modification in the definition of "harm" under the Endangered Species Act.
The old definition was put in place in 1975, two years after the ESA was enacted, and upheld by the Supreme Court in 1995's Babbitt, Secretary of the Interior v. Sweet Home Chapter of Communi...
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