Federal Court Strikes Down President Trump’s Attacks Against Endangered Species Act, Restores Bedrock Environmental Law to Pre-Trump Status

A federal court struck down President Trump’s attacks against the Endangered Species Act (ESA), restoring key values of the bedrock environmental law to the status it held for decades before the first Trump administration attacked the bedrock environmental law. After a seven-year legal saga, the Northern District of California Court found that a series of regulations from 2019 and 2024 were in clear violation of the statute, and ordered those regulations immediately vacated. The ruling will derail ongoing efforts by the current Trump administration to further weaken the ESA.

The ruling reaffirms that federal agencies must use the best available science when assessing harm to species, they cannot ignore incremental harm to critical habitat, and the agencies must firmly commit to any measures relied upon to reduce harm to imperiled plants and animals.

Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and WildEarth Guardians, represented by Earthjustice, challenged regulations issued seven years ago by the first Trump administration, as well as inadequate rules issued under President Biden.

“Extinction is forever, and today’s ruling strikes down regulations that deprived vulnerable species of a last chance at survival,” said Ben Levitan, Earthjustice senior attorney. “This ruling sends a strong signal to the Trump administration that its pending plans to further weaken the rules will violate the law.”

“For more than 50 years, the Endangered Species Act has been one of the most successful conservation laws we have,” said Joanna Zhang, endangered species advocate with WildEarth Guardians. “This victory gives vulnerable species and the ecosystems we all rely on a chance to recover in the face of the climate crisis and relentless pressure from extractive industries.”

“I’m thrilled the court rejected these efforts to gut endangered species protections and eviscerate a law Americans love,” said Ryan Shannon, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We’re in an extinction crisis that demands urgent action to prevent thousands of animal and plant species from disappearing forever. Trump is hellbent on serving corporations at the expense of endangered wildlife, but thankfully the law protects these critters and the places they live. Now Trump must obey it.”

“Today’s ruling reversed changes aimed at gutting some of the Endangered Species Act’s most important protections for the habitats of species facing extinction,” said Sierra Club Senior Attorney Karimah Schoenhut. “Thankfully, the court rejected this unlawful attempt to allow the piecemeal destruction of critical habitat and to undermine the Act’s protections against jeopardizing protected species.”

Background:

The first Trump administration carried out a series of unprecedented attacks against the Endangered Species Act, prompting a legal fight that culminated in today’s ruling.

During the Biden administration, some of the first Trump administration’s damage was undone through new regulations. But those efforts ultimately fell short of restoring the ESA to its full protection purpose. The legal fight went on.

Though most of this set of regulations have been invalidated, the current Trump administration has again proposed rules that undermine protections for threatened and endangered species. Any new regulations will need to consider the Court’s reasoning today before they are finalized.

The Trump administration has also proposed to reverse a 50-year understanding of the statute that could open the door to widespread destruction of habitat for threatened and endangered wildlife. This change may be finalized soon, even though it has been met with fierce public and scientific opposition.

Additionally, President Trump is convening a committee of his own appointees to effectively decide the fate of endangered species for projects whose approvals would otherwise violate the law. Tomorrow, the Trump administration will bring together its “Extinction Committee” for the first time to potentially override protections under the Endangered Species Act for all oil and gas activities in the Gulf of Mexico, which could drive the Gulf’s most imperiled creatures, including sea turtles, whales, fish, rays, and corals, to extinction.

Trump also issued an executive order on the first day of his new term declaring an “energy emergency” that specifically named the ESA, setting up an effort to eventually subvert the law in the name of fossil fuel extraction and private corporate interests.

Meanwhile, the ESA remains one of the most popular and effective conservation laws ever enacted in the U.S., with 84 percent of Americans in support of it today. The ESA has had a 99% success rate, saving numerous species including the bald eagle, Florida manatee, the gray wolf, and many other iconic animals that would have otherwise disappeared forever. Humans also benefit immensely from the bedrock environmental law, which helps keep ecosystems intact that impact everything from agriculture to clean water access and disease prevention.

The ESA is needed more than ever today, with over one-third of plants and animals in the U.S. at risk of extinction, in large part due to human activities that destroy habitat, overexploit and kill species, pollute water systems, and speed up climate change.