by Dennis Bragg (KPAX/KAJ Media Center)
SAN FRANCISCO — The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals says Congress was within its power when it ordered wolves in the Northern Rockies taken off the Endangered Species List last year.
The ruling came Wednesday morning in the ongoing fight over a Congressional rider approved in April 2011 that removed the wolves in Montana and Idaho from ESA protection, and blocked the courts from overturning that position.
Several conservation groups including the Alliance for the Wild Rockies, Friends of the Clearwater and the Center for Biological Diversity attacked that action, saying Congress had overstepped rules separating legislative and judicial authority.
U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy refused to overturn the Congressional action and de-listing last year even though he had questions that mirrored some of the environmental group’s positions.
But the three-judge appeals court says the rider pushed through by Senator Jon Tester and others didn’t overstep the Separation of Powers doctrine. The ruling noted that Congress didn’t specifically order the courts to take any direct action, but merely stipulated that the courts couldn’t overturn the de-listing.
