Minnesota AG and Wisconsin AG Joined Coalition Challenging Endangered Species Act Rollbacks

OCTOBER 22, 2019

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison and Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul joined the coalition of attorneys general suing the Interior and Commerce Departments over their rollbacks of Endangered Species Act regulations. The states argue that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Marine Fisheries Service’s decisions to finalize three rules that undermine the key requirements and purpose of the Endangered Species Act are unlawful. In their lawsuit, the attorneys general warned that the rules “violate the plain language and purpose of the ESA, its legislative history, numerous binding judicial precedents interpreting the ESA, and its precautionary approach to protecting imperiled species and critical habitat.”