Frog Fight
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What to Know: A new U.S. Supreme Court decision upholds property rights.
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday delivered a unanimous win to property owners contesting government designation of their land as a critical habitat for endangered species, and dealt a setback to the shy and homely dusky gopher frog,” the Washington Post reports. “The court remanded the case, saying a lower court had been too deferential to the government’s designation of more than 1,500 acres of Louisiana land as a potential future home for the frog, which is known to live only in parts of a national forest in neighboring Mississippi.”
The TPPF Take: In rendering its decision, the Supreme Court sided with an amicus brief filed by TPPF.
“The stakes were high because the Endangered Species Act places substantial burdens on private property owners whose lands have been designated as critical habitat, limiting land use dramatically,” says TPPF’s Ted Hadzi-Antich. “Landowners have the right to challenge the government’s decisions; an agency claiming that its actions aren’t subject to judicial review raises troubling questions about the separation of powers.”
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