MONTGOMERY — The U.S. Supreme Court's recent 8-0 decision in Weyerhaeuser Company v. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is being called by Alabama's Attorney General as a victory in the state's effort to stop federal government overreach in land management.
In its decision, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled against the federal government's designation of land as "critical habitat" for endangered species which do not live on the land, according to the Attorney General's Office.
“At issue is the question of whether the federal government, acting under the authority of the Endangered Species Act, could extend the reach of a critical habitat beyond the area currently occupied by a species at risk," Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said in a statement. "Under President Obama, the federal government vastly expanded the definition of what constitutes a critical habitat, going even beyond the boundaries of what is considered habitable for an endangered species to include areas that may never be inhabitable by that species."
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision overturned a U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling from August 2017. Marshall and a coalition of 17 other state attorneys general argued in an amicus brief that the lower court's ruling violated the Endangered Species Act and would affect state's timber and mining industries in what Marshall called a "federal land grab."