EARTH JUSTICE • March 30, 2026
A federal court struck down President Trump’s attacks against the Endangered Species Act (ESA), restoring key values of the bedrock environmental law to the status it held for decades before the first Trump administration attacked the bedrock environmental law. After a seven-year legal saga, the court found that a series of regulations from 2019 and 2024 were in clear violation of the statute, and ordered those regulations immediately vacated. The ruling will derail ongoing efforts by the current Trump administration to further weaken the ESA. The ruling reaffirms that federal agencies must use the best available science when assessing harm to species, they cannot ignore incremental harm to critical habitat, and the agencies must firmly commit to any measures relied upon to reduce harm to imperiled plants and animals. Center for Biological Diversity, Sierra Club, and WildEarth Guardians, represented by Earthjustice, challenged regulations issued seven years ago by the first Trump administration.