Wolf De-listing Back In Court
The wolf management question is again heading back to court today. Wildlife advocates are claiming the move by Congress that cleared the way for hunting in Montana and Idaho last spring breached the separation of powers under the Constitution. Congress took the unprecedented step of stripping Endangered Species Act protections from more than 1,300 wolves across five states. Wildlife advocates have sued to reverse the move and want the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California to suspend the hunts. They claim Congress violated the Constitution’s separation of powers mandate by reversing prior court rulings that kept protections in place. So far, more than 150 wolves have been harvested this year by hunters in the Northern Rockies. Meanwhile, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is monitoring the hunts, and say they have no plans to intervene because wolves have recovered in the region and the states have promised to manage them responsibly.
