"Unprecedented Ruling Strikes ESA Protections on Private Land"

"A federal judge this week struck down a government prohibition on harming the threatened Utah prairie dog on private property, setting up a potential constitutional showdown on the reach of the Endangered Species Act.

The ruling from Judge Dee Benson for the U.S. District Court for the District of Utah held that the regulation violated the Constitution's Commerce Clause because the prairie dog only lives within Utah and does not affect interstate economic activity.

'Although the Commerce Clause authorizes Congress to do many things,' Benson wrote, 'it does not authorize Congress to regulate takes of a purely intrastate species that has no substantial effect on interstate commerce.'"

Jeremy P. Jacobs reports for Greenwire November 7, 2014.