Constitutional Law Keyed to Stone
Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife
InstructorMatthew Steinberg
CaseCast™ – "What you need to know"
Facts
The Endangered Species Act of 1973 (the Act) was enacted to protect endangered or threatened species and to prevent the destruction of their natural habitats. The Secretary is empowered to promulgate rules pursuant to the Act. In 1986, Defendant promulgated a new rule that worked to limit the scope of the Act to actions taken in the United States or on the high seas. Respondents, an organization dedicated to wildlife conservation, filed an action seeking a declaratory judgment that the new rule was based on incorrect interpretation of the Act and in error insofar as it set a limit on geographic scope of the Act. Further, Respondents argued that they had been injured and therefore had standing, because they had observed the endangered animals in the past, intended to do so again in the future and that the rule would increase the rate of extinction of the animals.
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